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Awesome, thanks guys.

It's probably reasonable to sell if you're risk averse and can't sleep because you're afraid of what will happen to the value of your portfolio if we do fall off the fiscal cliff. As for the efficient market hypothesis - that all risks are priced in - well, it might be that the "market"...

I did quite a bit of conference travel this year, which should easily count toward a professional expense. Although it was not required, it's by and large expected - and, unfortunately, not fully reimbursed. Does anyone know if, for the purpose of a tax deduction, it matters when I spent the...

Isn't prime only free for 6 months with an .edu address? After that, there's still a pretty huge discount, though - 50%, I think? Totally worth the money.

Does anyone know what the return/exchange period on the Google Store is? My Nexus 10 has crashed a couple times already, and it seems from other posts that this isn't an uncommon problem. However, I'm outside the US for the holidays and can't return it until mid January - so about a month after...

The USS Midway reminds me a lot of the Intrepid in New York, so I think I may skip it. Glad to hear downtown is walkable, and that taxis are useful though. Pittsburgh has ruined taxis for me... often times, it's faster to just take the bus.Also, some of the cab drivers here are assholes. I'm...

What's your dad's usage like? Any data or texts? How many minutes? If he only uses the cell phone occasionally (maybe as a supplement to a landline), per per minute makes the most sense. If he talks on it all the time, either a ton of minutes or unlimited minutes is the way to go. Plans...

Not to hijack the thread, but I'm going to San Diego in two weeks for a conference. I'll have two or three days to explore the city and am also looking for some suggestions. I gather the SD zoo is the place to check out. I should probably budget half a day for that? What else should I be...

Yeah, they send out a receipt that I promptly delete. It's also in the online system, I just never bothered to really look at it. Yes, each share you buy comes with its own tax base. So if you have 100 shares at $5 and 100 shares at $10, then sell when the stock price is $7.50 you could either...

Avoid the ball drop at times square. I did it once and it's totally not worth it. All you hear is people screaming "where's the ball?!? I don't see it?!?" - yeah, it's that unimpressive. Looks much better on TV, so just tune in to one of the channels broadcasting it (or stream it from the web)...

Does anyone actually save records of all their transactions, or do you trust your brokerage to do it right? Scottrade lets me set my tax strategy (e.g. minimize taxes, sell shares bought first...) - I just figured they'd handle this stuff for me. Wrong assumption?

Honestly, I think that's fair. At least that's textbook providers offering something beyond the printed text. In some cases, it's actually fairly elaborate and I think helpful to many students. I rather see that than the continuous screwing around with editions, where nothing changes except the...

Some are lazy and just recommend the newest version. However, sometimes there are good reasons for doing so. For example, some textbooks now come with a significant online offering that is actually neat to use in a course. So you can just assign homework straight from the book and get feedback...

Renting textbooks is usually a bad deal. You pay a premium so you don't have to deal with selling the book again. Buy it used from amazon, half.com, or even ebay, which tends to have international versions of textbooks. Those come either on cheap paper (India) or high-quality print (not...

Small businesses (up to 10 people) used to get Google Apps for free, which has now been cancelled:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...826571350.html It was actually used a lot by individuals to manage their own domains. Existing users get to keep it, at least, but it's still a shame...

I'd also suspect that you can negotiate a better deal if you bring in more cash. Or is that only if you don't take advantage of the dealership's financing? Because "free" financing just means you pay for it in the price of the car. Nothing is free...

The Nexus 10 shipped fairly quickly when I ordered it about a week ago. The Nexus 4 is a different story... took a little over 2 weeks. Now, of course, the waiting time is through the roof. I have read, though have no idea how credible it is, that Google is selling the Nexus 4 at cost. So...

100% stocks from emerging markets / developing countries. Probably as risky as you can get without outright speculation (in which case you might as well bet your money on black). Worth it? I wouldn't do it... but to each their own. You might just want to consider a globally diversified stock...

Just to add to what has been said before: Australia's central bank is independent from the government, too. This is good practice for a central bank, which should not be subject to the whims of election cycles and populism.

$150/month for a plan from a Swiss for-profit insurer. (Sorry, limited to Swiss citizens living abroad. The US version of the plan is, of course, the most expensive at that rate.) Spoilered since people may not care. FWIW: the Swiss system is the model for US reform. In 2014, there's going to...

It won't keep me up at night... I just thought this was a new thing and found out I wasn't eligible for it. I learned my lesson with respect to not paying for betas, though. From now on, I wait for the public beta or until there's a 30 day trial.

6 month cut off sucks... I bought the preorder from their website for the beta and it just wasn't my cup of tea. Didn't see a way to get a refund at the time. I haven't even logged on since the game had released.

Sounds like you should get a regular brokerage account and just buy ETFs there. Maxing out your 401k and Roth IRA may not leave you with enough to retire anyway, depending on your expectations.

So, I don't call much on my phone (yeah)... but, I could swear when I picked up a call from my N4, sound came out of speakers even though I didn't turn on speakers. Is there a setting where that, for some reason, might have been turned on?

These funds are actually separate trusts that "contract out" the administration/management/advertisement to whoever they are associated with. So iShares is offered by Barclay - and if the latter went bankrupt, iShares might start to be offered by Citibank. Barclay has no ownership of the trust...

I'd be happy to learn more about it... but the first question that comes to mind is: what happens if the carrier goes bust? Generally, these products (like all structured products) are only as good as the company that backs them. All the people who invested in Lehman Brothers' structured...

Yeah, you could split it up by calculating your needs 57+ as a lower monthly withdrawal than from 40 to 57. You'd get your monthly "allowance" from the 401(k) by starting with 200k and calculating the monthly payouts such that you will have 0 on the account after 45 years. I can do the...

So far, I agree: young people should generally prefer making contributions with post-tax savings. This fails on at least one account: you can never get a high return with no risk. Period. For one, all it takes is for the insurance company to go out of business and your insurance/investment...

Actually, my calculations take into account inflation - they're all with real contributions and real withdrawals (i.e. your withdrawal amount increases every year). The rate of inflation I take (4.13%) is the median rate of inflation over any 35 year period since 1916. Similarly you get the real...

Hah, I vaguely remember going into IRC and trying to get the equivalent of an nzb. I don't even recall what the app was called... but I downloaded like 4 seasons of the West Wing at 25kb/sec. I actually bought the VHS set of the first West Wing season - they wouldn't ship it on DVD - and they...

With $3,500 in housing expenditures, you're going to want about $9,000/month pre-tax? Assuming you expect to live for 50 years in retirement and get a real rate of return of 3%, you'd need about $2.8m. Not that much, if you think about it. edit: You need substantial savings already to make...

I should note that my apartment has huge windows, so light would be an issue with a plasma. Also, I do watch 1080p content (Vudu), including 3D, and HD (720p?) Netflix and Amazon streams. I don't watch network/cable TV, so not sure how it would compare. Also, as others have mentioned, if the...

I bought this one back in August, following recommendations from the FoH board and another I frequent:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ls_o05_s00_i00 Very happy with it. The picture quality seems really good and the 3D is awesome. Yes, I use 3D whenever a movie is available in the...

The app I use by far the most isPocket(formerly known as "ReadItLater"). I go quickly though my RSS feeds on google reader and send all interesting-looking articles to pocket. That downloads it onto my tablet (and phone), so when I have a few minutes downtime, I can read an article real quick...

Depends on your time horizon. Let's say you're 30 and you get a real rate of return of 6.5% (geometric mean over the period, expected with 100% stocks - as you rebalance, and of course you must do that, your actual return is going to be less than that). After fees, you're comparing 6.3% vs...

This is the annual cut the fund takes from your investments. So if you invest $10,000 and the expense rate is 0.3%, you pay $30/year in fees. Doesn't sound like much, but by the time you retire you should probably have over a million in savings, at which point 0.3% is $3k. (Also keep in mind...

I think employers usually provide matching only for the 401(k) plans they sponsor (where I imagine they get a cut from the management fee), so if they don't do that, you're mostly out of luck. It's actually no different from them paying you an extra $x and you transferring that $x to the 401(k)...

I think you might not even get roaming with those prepaid plans...

You probably want a Roth IRA. This means you don't get a tax deduction when you make the contribution, but your withdrawals in retirement will be tax free. This makes a lot of sense, since that money will grow for a long time and you're currently (most likely) not in a high tax bracket...

With $100/month, you're limited to mutual funds. Otherwise, you pay a per transaction fee that would be at least 7% of your investment - very, very bad deal. I'd suggest sticking with a Vanguard Target Retirement Fund:https://personal.vanguard.com/us/fun...RetirementList Select your age...