living out of the states for most of the year i only pay taxes on fica. after i max my roth ira what are my best options?

What is the best way for a Canadian in Canada to trade Canadian dollars for American dollars?

Notes:
-I am taking about actual physical cash for the purpose of a trip to the states
-The best way is a way where I pay the lowest possible commission without doing a lot of work

i have no idea what is the "best" way, but when i travel internationally i just use my atm card to get cash from the first machine i see upon arrival.

fun101,

I don't know about the specific details for Canadia/USA, however, I live in England (GBP) and often travel to Europe (EUR) and Australia (AUD) and elsewhere. I've looked into various options, and the effort required to use them generally aren't worth the <1% exchange rate I gain for short-term holidays, so I just use my debit card at an ATM in my destination country.

I've needed to move larger chunks of money a couple of times, and have found that this provider does a great detail for wiring money internationally, to the point that these guys offered me competitive rates to what my employer is able to obtain: http://www.ozforex.com.au/ (I don't know if they do CAD->USD)

I lived on the American side of the border for years and everyone in Canada took American currency. It's so readily available, I've got to believe that Canadian banks readily trade it. Just ask your bank. I would be really shocked if they didn't.

The ATM suggestion is good, but lolCanada has the new chip implant thing for cards and often they cause problems when being used in the US. I had a Canadian girlfriend and her ATM card always gave her problems in the States, so it's probably a good idea to come with currency.

I could get currency from my bank, the trouble is they charge a somewhat high commission on it. Yes, most debit/credit cards in Canada do have chip technology.

I am currently creating a business with a partner and are in the process of choosing how we are going to incorporate the business. Also we would add partners once the business is running and have a few clients. It is a business concierge.

What type of corporation should we create?
Any suggestions that we should be careful with something or do something specific in the process would be very helpful.

Thanks in advance

i recommend that anyone considering interacting with this poster to do your homework first.

Recommendations on socially responsible investment (SRI) funds worth purchasing? Similar or better than the New Alternatives Fund (NALFX). Also what suggestions do you have for stocks/bonds ratio for my Roth IRA. High risk is fine.

CaliStyle,

Read some Milton Friedman on the morality of businesses, and then invest in the most profitable businesses, and be satisfied that you are doing morally good things by using the extra profit for more morally good things.

Newb question:

Let's say I buy a stock and in two months it goes up 40% and then I sell it (or hold it, I guess it doesn't matter). What is the annualized return on that?

What is the math on how to figure out what the annual return is on that?

((12 months)/(2 months)) * Return = annualised return.

Isn't it (1+return)^(12months/2months)

Yes; I'm wrong.

Yes but Josem's formula gives a good quick approximation if you don't have access to a calculator.

Is that different from the Compound Annual Growth Rate?

(Ending Value / Beginning Value) ^ (1/# of years) - 1 = CAGR

It makes sense if you go with a single year, (10 / 5) ^ (1/1) - 1 = 100%

2 years would be 41.42%.

In my example, for current values:

(22.70 / 16.95) ^ (1 / (3 months / 12 months)) - 1 = 221.7%. Is that correct? I've been holding for 3 months so it would be a quarter (.25 years).

I haven't read Milton but I'm imagining the direction his arguments go:

Corporations/business have no moral obligations because they aren't moral agents (corollary ends up being that a business has 1 responsibility: profit). Thus, we invest in the most profitable entity and then re-invest the money morally.

But, it seems, we have no incentive to "re-invest" in a moral fashion if our initial investment can be justified on amoral grounds. EG If it's ever okay for us to do something with our money that isn't morally guided (like pursue profit with the later intent of spending morally), it's always okay to do that thing and always okay not to invest morally.

Why imagine when you can just google it? You don't even have to read. There is a really entertaining and famous video of him dressing down a student.

Actually, why even post that you haven't bothered to read Friedman and then give your opinion on what he said? (sorry, a bit cranky about)

His argument is basically the same as Adam Smith's. People are smart enough to buy what they want to buy. Basically, if they provide a service and can be profitable, then they are a net good to society measured in offering what people want at a price they are willing to pay.

The alternative is to let capital be allocated inefficiently in terms of what the individuals in society want. A fine argument can be made for ignoring what people want, but it takes a great leap of assuming that you know what they want is wrong and a willingness to let others decide what you want for you.

Obviously, you are free to invest in companies that fit your moral proclivities. It can be correct if you correctly time when the customers or government will agree with you. I avoid tobacco stocks and most for profit education companies because I think the customer base will dry up over time.

Part of the fun is guessing an opponents hand before they table it. Beyond that though, we have to have some heuristics which define what we'll take time to read and not read (or else we have to read everything) and, while Adam Smith is reasonably required reading (for philosophical and historical reasons), can you really thing of a GOOD reason why we should read Milton Friedman?

Much of the reason I won't waste my time Googling Milton is because, as you mention, I think I've already encountered the best version of his arguments in people like Adam Smith.

this may be kind of a stupid question but i wasnt able to get any kind of response that made sense from the lady i talked to on the phone so ill ask here. if i pay extra towards my car loan in a particular month, why does it not decrease my future payments? it just deducts from my next month.

for example if my car payment is X and i have some extra money to pay and i pay X+50, the next month my amount due just becomes X-50, then goes back to the standard amount for the rest of the life of the loan. i was under the impression that i could pay extra each month and pay it off earlier. what am i missing here? tia.

You are paying it off earlier. You agreed to pay x / month. If you pay faster than that, they apply it to the principle (reducing the total amount of interest you will have to pay as well) AND the next month's required payment is reduced by the extra you have paid. That is purely a good thing. You could make 12 payments all at once if you'd like and not have to make another payment for a year if you wanted to.

The same reasoning applies if you got behind on your payments. If you miss a payment, they don't just divide that payment up by the number of months left on the loan. You would owe them two month's payments (plus penalties + some extra amount of interest you'd have to make up for in the last payment).

34TheTruth34,

It sounds like there's a clause in your contract to prevent this. I'm no expert on finance or your loan contract, however, it sounds like they've inserted something into your contract to prevent the loan from being recalculated each month.

34TheTruth,

That's quite common for installment loans. As someone else said, just keep making the higher payment each month regardless and you will pay it off early and save money on interest.

k ty guys. it just seems to me like they should be recalculating like josem said. like if i have 20 months left on the loan and i pay an extra, say, 100 this month, then i feel like the amount of my principal should be $5 less each month going forward.

if it doesnt get recalculated then it seems to me like i would just end up paying the same amount overall just earlier. which obv im not interested in doing.

You're thinking about it wrong. You will pay less interest. They just don't change the installment amount. That would probably require them to write an entirely new contract every month. No one is gonna do that. Your final payment would be less than the normal payment.