I would guess that FIFO is the default method..

I'm not an accountant, however:
Unless you can specifically identify the shares that you sold, the default reporting method is FIFO, or "first in first out". That should answer your next question.
Your last thought is correct. In order to harvest a capital loss, you have to wait the 30 days before you reinvest in the same position.

thanks for the help guys

can someone gimme a good link for some MS Excel tutorial videos for finance, i've got a job interview coming up and need to brush up.
The job description says one has to be proficient to an intermediate level with MS Excel

This came with one of my school textbooks. There's a ton of good info and shortcuts in here. I already knew a decent amount of Excel stuff before I looked at this, but I still learned quite a few cool things.

http://www.mediafire.com/?v2zhg8a4l5yw44d

There are macros embedded, but I give you my word that it's safe.

Thanks this looks really good. What would u say our the main sections/areas that i would need to go through for a finance interview

I am interested in opening a share-dealing account online, just wondering which ones people will recommend? I've came across a few eg: iii, share & stocktraders.
I dont mind if it is very basic as long as it is well known & reputable. (I'm in UK fwiw).

Cheers.

How do you bet on falling home prices in a specific area?

Let's assume you inherited a 1m$ appartement (no mortages or debt on it) and nothing else. The appartement has been given to you under the premise of you living in it (no problem due to low living costs) for at least 10 years.

You are currently 23y old with a net worth of 100k$ and you plan on selling this home in 10 years so you can build your own home. How do you hedge the risk of the home decreasing in value? The better it correlates to the market value of the appartement the better.

Any suggestions for a good free stock market tracker? Preferably as live as possible, similar to TeleChart?

i track my stocks with google portfolio, works pretty well for what i need.

question regarding ROTH IRA contributions.

i know there is an income limit for people to be able to contribute to a ROTH. i havent done my taxes this year so im not really sure what my wife and I's AGI is for 2012. what if i contribute to a ROTH today and it turns out i wasnt allowed to?

what is the penalty?

You simply pay taxes on whatever you contributed.

I found this on the IRS website:
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p590...link1000230977

What if You Contribute Too Much?
A 6% excise tax applies to any excess contribution to a Roth IRA.

Excess contributions. These are the contributions to your Roth IRAs for a year that equal the total of:
Amounts contributed for the tax year to your Roth IRAs (other than amounts properly and timely rolled over from a Roth IRA or properly converted from a traditional IRA or rolled over from a qualified retirement plan, as described later) that are more than your contribution limit for the year (explained earlier under How Much Can Be Contributed? ), plus

Any excess contributions for the preceding year, reduced by the total of:

Any distributions out of your Roth IRAs for the year, plus

Your contribution limit for the year minus your contributions to all your IRAs for the year.


Withdrawal of excess contributions. For purposes of determining excess contributions, any contribution that is withdrawn on or before the due date (including extensions) for filing your tax return for the year is treated as an amount not contributed. This treatment only applies if any earnings on the contributions are also withdrawn. The earnings are considered earned and received in the year the excess contribution was made.

newbie at finance question ~

Which websites are the best for learning about money, how to make it, how to invest it etc..? Basically the 2p2 of money management and growth.
Also similar sites for like people running businesses.

Basically I'm a complete noobie thats trying to learn about how to use my money to make alot more money.

bogleheads is the 2+2 of personal finance.

If you you or your wife have W2s, it should be easy to estimate the AGI. If it's under 90k, you can contribute the full $5000. Between 90 and 110K, you get a partial deduction. If you are both self-employed, take all the expenses against the income for AGI. IRS publications (posted earlier) tell you everything you need. PM if you have other questions...

There are some good investing primers out there. My favorite is Get a Financial Life by Kobliner. Online you can learn a lot in the personal finance section of wsj.com. glgl

Phase out numbers last year [2011] were 107k and 120k for single, 169k and 179k for married/joint. This year [2012] they are 110k and 125k single, 173k and 183k for married/joint.
AGI will be less than gross income. No deductions at all for Roth IRA, although a savers credit may apply if your AGI is in the $5000-$27,750 range (single), $41,625 (head of household), $55,500 (married/joint).

What moves a stock in day to day trading? I have a small position in GRVY that I got into at $1.92. It's been on a solid run up the past couple days but today it took a solid dive (recovered to it's original opening price in after-hours trading).

There was no news today, no events, nothing. Just out of the blue the stock took a massive dive. What causes this? Irrational fear that a stock's climbed too high and everyone sells out to lock in a gain?

GRVY is a microcap with low volume and a large bid-ask spread. Any way it moves is going to be big.

Wednesday I filed our 2011 federal and state taxes online. Yesterday the wife's parents came over our house and brought an Etrade 1099 DIV form listing $26 in Ordinary and qualified (lines 1a and 1b) dividends from the wifes former employers stock. Should I even bother trying to amend my return or just let it go?

i have no idea of the answer to your question but i'll ask this: would the $26 of extra income affect your tax bracket (i.e. if you reported $19980 income and the next tax bracket kicks in at $20000)?

No, why?

because if you bumped into a new tax bracket, you would (probably) owe more than the trivial amount of tax you would otherwise owe on $26. given that the extra tax on $26 is probably << $1, i don't think the irs would care that much. but if the extra $26 means you need to pay an extra point on your entire income, the irs might indeed care.

DISCLAIMER: i am not a cpa. i don't know anything about taxes or the irs. consult a professional or someone smarter than me itt to be sure.

Tyler, dude, that's not how taxes work...lol.

You pay the higher percentage only on the income above the threshold.

•10% on taxable income from $0 to $8,500, plus
•15% on taxable income over $8,500 to $34,500, plus
•25% on taxable income over $34,500 to $83,600, plus
•28% on taxable income over $83,600 to $174,400, plus
•33% on taxable income over $174,400 to $379,150, plus
•35% on taxable income over $379,150.

So if your income is $35,000, you would have to pay 25% of the $500 over $34,500. Not 25% on the entire $35,000.