kspaans

51 ms·

481.
by kspaans 11y ago
Does your comparison with your friends take location into account? E.g. if you're in SF and they're in Reno, then expatistan[0] claims your costs are 57% higher. 0 - http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/co
482.
by kspaans 11y ago
I wonder if this could lead to firms like Vanguard and BlackRock not using their proxy votes. Or perhaps creating a system where index fund investors get to vote based on the shares they indirectly own. E.g. my 1000 shares of VTI means I ge
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by kspaans 11y ago
Wouldn't that be really regressive? A poor person's spending on goods is going to be a larger proportion of their income than a rich person's. Admittedly, rich people could buy fancier goods which could be taxed more, but wou
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by kspaans 11y ago
Yup, Canada too. In the UK the PAYE (pay as you earn) system means most employed people don't even have to file returns, but for those making fancy income or who are self-employed, the form is literally called the self-assessment form
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by kspaans 11y ago
Keep in mind that the article compares Fitzgerald's effective rate (5.5%) to the equivalent marginal bracket (40%) today. If you are in a higher tax bracket you don't pay that rate on all of your income. I'm not too familia
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by kspaans 11y ago
Not to mention that ETF is more expensive _and_ less diversified than broader market index funds. And the index it follows isn't even doing anything fancy like Dimensional Fund Advisors (they don't use a market-cap weighted index,
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by kspaans 11y ago
My work day is 9 hours (with a 1 hour lunch). I track my time and find that about 25% is spent taking breaks from 'working'. The path of lease resistance for me is to work for 45 minutes and then take a 5 to 15 minute break to wal
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by kspaans 11y ago
I can see the table of contents, but I get a one page document with the message asking me to upgrade. But yeah, I'm sure it's some logic inside the document checking the version number of the reader or something, good point.
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Ask HN: Can you open this PDF?
1 points by kspaans 11y ago|7 comments
490.
by kspaans 11y ago
This is interesting. I'm a Canadian here on a temporary work visa in a similar situation: my expired passport has my visa. I carry my old and new passports whenever I leave the country. I'm going to be sponsoring my spouse (depend
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by kspaans 11y ago
That's the TOC form. She had to use the NTL form[0] which has the substring 'terror' in it 13 times by my quick search. 0 - https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm...
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by kspaans 11y ago
Don't spouse visas take over 12 months? I'm about the start the process of sponsoring my spouse and we are expecting it to take almost 2 years (we aren't living in Canada at the moment). EDIT: well they do say "up to 16
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by kspaans 11y ago
I've heard that leveraged funds aren't great as long-term vehicles[0]. Even the summary of TQQQ says this: Due to the compounding of daily returns, ProShares' returns over periods other than one day will likely differ in amo
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by kspaans 11y ago
Vanguard definitely uses its proxy votes: https://about.vanguard.com/vanguard-proxy-voting/
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by kspaans 11y ago
Vanguard may invest passively, but they claim to do active things with their proxy votes: https://about.vanguard.com/vanguard-proxy-voting/
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by kspaans 11y ago
It's almost entirely about paying less in fund fees and aiming to be 'average'. I.E. get the return of the market rather than trying to beat it. Think of it as 'passive' investing rather than index investing. EDIT:
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by kspaans 11y ago
For reference my first job was $70k/year at RIM/BlackBerry in Waterloo, Ontario. I was writing C code for the BB10 phone app (middleware, not UI or cellular radio stuff). Admittedly I had ~2 years work experience from UWaterloo&#x
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by kspaans 11y ago
Full disclosure: my fiancée is from the Philippines. :D
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by kspaans 11y ago
Given the various names for that stretch of water, I'm surprised the NYT doesn't spin the article by calling it e.g. the West Philippine Sea. Maybe because South China Sea is more recognizable in a headline?
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by kspaans 11y ago
This may be country-specific, but can options be put in tax-free accounts like TFSAs (Canada), (N)ISAs (UK), or (I think) IRAs (US)? Wouldn't that mitigate the capital gains tax issues?
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by kspaans 11y ago
I said effective tax rate not marginal tax rate. It looks like US and CA income tax has brackets, so even if your marginal rate is 37% you won't be paying that rate on 100% of your income. That said, I'd believe that if you includ
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by kspaans 11y ago
Wowza! So at $140k/year the effective tax rate in CA is around 40%? (Or maybe my math is bad.) EDIT: And some that may not all be income tax? E.g. in Ontario one pays fed income tax, provincial income tax, Canada Pension Plan, Employme
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by kspaans 11y ago
Are index funds a thing in China? E.g. Vanguard style.
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by kspaans 11y ago
The reality is that the index is buying the stock because it views it as a good value That's not how all indexes work. The FTSE100, for example, is simply the 100 largest companies on the LSE by market cap[0]. And many indexes (DFA b
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by kspaans 11y ago
That's really interesting, I hadn't heard about it[0]! Thanks for sharing! 0 - http://www.wired.com/2015/04/overstock-files-offer-stock-wor...
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by kspaans 11y ago
Ahh yes, I keep forgetting about national insurance, the other income tax! ;^)
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by kspaans 11y ago
I would asssume that the £30k without paying income tax Very comfortable life: £30k per year. Which still corresponds to £40k gross salary (roughly 1.5x statistical median wage), but with tax-efficient asset allocation you can relative
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by kspaans 12y ago
Yeah good point. Others have also made good arguments that it's silly to base your price on cost-of-living. :)
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by kspaans 12y ago
As a kind of food-for-thought question rather than a topic-hijacker, how much should cost of living be taken into account for your pricing? E.G. if living in Manila is 50% cheaper than living in SF ( http://www.expatistan.com&#x2F