120
votes
How can I gift $41,000 to my friend anonymously? (Australia)
Use a Lawyer
To ensure the legality and anonymity of such a transaction you should be able to use a lawyer as an intermediary without revealing your identity to the friend.
Contact a lawyer and ask ...
54
votes
Accepted
High income, sudden windfall
First congratulations and well done in both your salary and investment. Hopefully there will be more of this in the future.
First I applaud your initial approach. Give some, spend some, save some. ...
- 74.9k
53
votes
Accepted
Should I invest when in debt?
All else being equal, No
The interest on your debt is quite high and is probably not tax deductable.
Any earnings on your investments would be taxed at about 30% based on your income. To positively ...
- 3,097
51
votes
Borrowing money to buy shares for cashflow?
Buying individual/small basket of high dividend shares is exposing you to 50%+ and very fast potential downswings in capital/margin calls. There is no free lunch in returns in this respect: nothing ...
- 5,718
45
votes
Why do small merchants charge an extra 30 cents for small amounts paid by credit card?
Here in the US, stores sometimes charge such a fee for small credit card purchases. Not as much as they used to, I think. And some refuse to accept credit cards for small purchases.
When I had a small ...
- 20.8k
45
votes
How can I gift $41,000 to my friend anonymously? (Australia)
Frame Challenge (idk if that's a thing in this SE, but I think it should be in this case)
You're concerned your friend won't accept the money if he knows it is from you, how do you know he'll accept ...
- 660
34
votes
High income, sudden windfall
What you do with your income, and with your windfall, should be based on your retirement goals, which you have not mentioned.
For many people, a paid-off residence and $1M in the bank would mean ...
- 37.5k
24
votes
Should I invest when in debt?
I'm sorry to be the one to tell you, but you are quite wrong in thinking that your investment returns will "probably" be greater than how much you are paying on your debt. Only someone ...
- 14.9k
22
votes
Accepted
If I plan to buy a car in cash, should I let the dealer know?
Ideally you would negotiate a car price without ever mentioning:
your intentions around financing
whether or not you work for the car company
whether you've recently graduated
any trade-in you might ...
- 12.1k
19
votes
If I plan to buy a car in cash, should I let the dealer know?
Yes you tell them. I can say that I pay cash for all my cars and always get cars for lower than the TrueCar low-end. There are basically two steps:
go test drive, negotiate fully, leave (unless you ...
- 4,680
17
votes
High income, sudden windfall
I'm going to be a bit practical here. Good for you for wanting to give to charity, but I'm going to ask you to hold off for a bit.
Warning, Will Robinson, Warning! As happens occasionally on this ...
- 2,361
14
votes
How can I purchase a car when no one will loan to me?
Simple. Do not buy that newish vehicle, and do not even try to obtain finance. Instead, buy an older vehicle (of a reliable manufacturer like Honda or Toyota) for whatever cash you have - or even ...
- 11.1k
13
votes
A person wants to deposit 2.1 million into my account
Yes, this is scam. Absolutely and 100%.
The details of the scam may vary, but are largely irrelevant as far as the correct course of action goes - which is to cut all communications with this person, ...
- 3,064
10
votes
Accepted
What factors should I consider when evaluating index funds?
The idea of an index is that it is representative of the market (or a specific market segment) as a whole, so it will move as the market does. Thus, past performance is not really relevant, unless you ...
- 8,081
10
votes
Accepted
Should I give my mortgage broker access to my bank account?
All they should need is authorization to do a one-time query of your balances from the bank, to confirm that the balance statement you're showing them is correct and not forged. (If that.) If they ...
- 31.8k
10
votes
Is it a good idea to get an principal and interest loan for an investment property?
Talk about coincidence, we just recieved letters from our bank saying that our interest only loans will be going up by 0.46% and if we want to keep our lower rate we will need to change early to P&...
- 20.8k
10
votes
Why do small merchants charge an extra 30 cents for small amounts paid by credit card?
Many small businesses are still on old EFTPOS contracts where they are billed the flat fee per transaction, so they pass it on. I've helped a few family friends and local businesses switch to more ...
- 337
9
votes
Accepted
Am I putting myself at any security risks by putting all my money in one bank institution?
For small amounts I wouldn't be too concerned.
There are two factors I can think of:
The bank going out of business e.g. due to a run on the bank. In most places there is government insurance to ...
- 332
9
votes
Accepted
Buying shares in employer's company during IPO
I think of these things in terms of risk.
Investing in individual stocks is risky, and investing in brand new individual stocks is riskier still. However, the payoff can be quite high.
The fact ...
9
votes
Accepted
Do "crossed checks" work in the United States?
Crossed Checks don't mean anything over here. As you mentioned, For Deposit Only has the same effect, and that's what banks/retailers look for.
Source: Wife is a former bank teller.
- 13.8k
9
votes
Accepted
How to protect an exchange rate advantage while studying abroad?
Hedging against currency fluctuations
I've considered simply moving my funds to an Australian bank to "lock-in" the current rate, but I worry that this will put me at risk of a substantial loss (...
- 20.8k
9
votes
50k into 24 month 1.15% p.a. term deposit, did I make a mistake?
The most important thing you did was have the opportunity and discipline to save a significant amount at a young age; this was not a mistake. You might have earned a little more in the next 2 years in ...
- 28.6k
8
votes
Accepted
Does girlfriend have too much savings, time to invest?
Congrats to your GF!
"How much" depends a lot on how stable her income tends to be. If she has stable salary @ $20K plus $5K-$15K in contract work, then having a larger EF is important. If she has a ...
- 3,381
8
votes
High income, sudden windfall
If your investment property is worth $900K now and you foresee it going down in value, why not sell it now and buy another one (or two) when the market bottoms out?
Your wife wants to reduce the risk ...
- 791
8
votes
Why do small merchants charge an extra 30 cents for small amounts paid by credit card?
I ran a small business in the UK some years ago, when charging extra for credit card transactions was legal. We used to charge an extra 50 pence for transactions under £10.
We did this, not because ...
- 181
7
votes
Accepted
If I pay the balance due, will I pay no interest in that month?
The "balance due" is the balance at the end of the last billing period. This is the amount that you need to pay by the due date to avoid any interest charges.
The "total balance" includes purchases ...
7
votes
If I plan to buy a car in cash, should I let the dealer know?
Ditto other answers, but I'd add there's a lot of psychology going on in a sale. If you're paying cash, you presumably have a pretty fixed upper limit on what you can spend. But if you're getting a ...
- 20.8k
7
votes
If I plan to buy a car in cash, should I let the dealer know?
In the UK at least, dealers definitely want you to take finance. They get benefits from the bank (which are not insubstantial) for doing this; these benefits translate directly to increased commission ...
7
votes
Accepted
What to do with copper coins in Australia
Check with your local bank - you're likely to be able to either deposit it to your account or exchange into more useful form of currency.
Otherwise, you can also check eBay. I'm not familiar with the ...
- 129k
7
votes
Should I invest when in debt?
Paying off your debt is an investment.
If you spend $100 to pay off your debt, you will not have to pay the $13.7 interest for that $100, so in some ways you "earned" $13.7 on your $100 investment.
...
- 701
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