Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with finance and accounting

Keeping moneys separate

Precision — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:14:19 -0800

What's the best way to keep my summer income separate from my savings? It's the summer between high school and university, and through scholarships (I'm a National Merit Scholar) and working quite a few hours at a part time job during high school, I've managed to save up enough to pay for the entirety of my first year of college, and likely the rest.

I quit my job upon graduating, promptly got bored with my idle time, and got a job waiting tables. I'd like to keep this money separate from my savings/checking accounts at Chase, and either use it at the end of the summer to buy a nice guitar, pay for a trip to Europe, or any number of things. I'm honestly only working right now for the fun of it.

I figure I have a few options: 1) Just tag all the income on Mint as "Summer Income" and tally it that way. 2) Open up another savings account at Chase with my first $300 in income and keep it separate that way. 3) Open up an account at Wells Fargo ($100 minimum balance, no monthly fee for college students) and keep it all over there to ensure it doesn't get mixed in with my money.

What's the most painfree way to do this?

How can the Fed Destroy Money It Created?

Pastabagel — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:41:35 -0800

[MonetaryPolicyFilter] In relation to the Fed's huge injection of money yesterday, please explain to me how, if at all, the Federal Reserve can destroy money on its balance sheet in a way that offsets the inflation that normally would result. The Fed's announcement yesterday that is it going to flood the economy with dollars would, in normal circumstances, be horrifically inflationary. But these are not normal normal circumstances. My questions are:

1) Why isn't this inflationary? To what extent have deflationary factors stemming from the credit crisis not yet worked their way into the economy such that they will offset what inflation results?

2) Explain Federal Reserve accounting to me. I sort of understand that the Fed can create this $1 trillion from basically thin air, but can it destroy money just as easily as it creates it?

3) Because the Fed is buying debt and debt-related instruments, can the Fed take the principal and interest payments it receives from these debtors (e.g. the U.S Treasury), and destroy that money just as easily as it created that money? In other words, when Treasury makes interest payments to the Fed on the bonds the Fed bought, can the Fed simply take that money and strike or "disappear" it from it's balance sheet forever?

4) If the Fed can do what is described in (3), is that the mechanism the Fed intends to use to avoid inflation that would normally result from such a huge injection of money? Has the Fed said anything about what it intends to do with the interest payments it receives?

5) Any resources related to Federal Reserve accounting or explanations of how its balance sheet works would be greatly appreciated.

I'm looking for accurate financial answers here, not lunacy or chatfilter. Thanks in advance for your help.

How much was that stuff worth?

nakedcodemonkey — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:11:37 -0800

How much was that stuff worth? I have to prepare a fairly precise net worth statement for Sept 93 on short notice. Most is easily pulled off old statements, but how do I come up with a solid fair market valuation for household/personal goods? It's peak tax season, so impossible to get an fast answer from an accountant. The only obvious calculator just throws validation errors. The place has been through several clutter purges and a couple buying sprees in the interim. Darned if I recall what was and wasn't here so long ago. What's a good method for estimating the value of household contents?

My head's about to explode...

Zé Pequeno — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 17:20:43 -0800

Can someone please point me in the right direction to find practice test papers for Financial Accounting? (Balance Sheets, Income Statements, Statements of Returns on Equity, Cash Flow Statements, Depreciation, Ratios, etc. etc.) Assorted business schools worries inside. Coming from a liberal arts academic background, I'm starting to really feel the pressure from my recently-started international business masters and get the impression I need to study ten times as hard as my classmates, most of whom have studied the subject at undergraduate level. At the moment, I'm fretting over Financial Accounting. Please help me to understand this subject!

Extra points for whoever can help me with Corporate Finance...

I was never strong at mathematics in school. Though I'm pretty good at mental arithmetic, I found the subject boring and didn't pay attention in class. Now I'm faced with the daunting task of getting to grips with Corporate Finance and have some decent books to help me, all of which cheerfully claim that the author needs no prior knowledge of Finance, just a knowledge of algebra! At the risk of appearing extremely dumb... I can't remember any algebra! What do I need to learn in order to understand the nimiety of equations by which I'm beginning to feel very overwhelmed?

What's better: Get paid less now, or more later?

Wild_Eep — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 12:13:30 -0800

AccountingFilter: Client convenience aside, does receiving "instant payment" for my services via PayPal make financial sense rather than waiting for a check to come in the mail 30 days later? Help me unlock the secrets of the Time Value of Money. I'm sure this is a complete textbook example of TVM, but humor me.

An example:

Let's say that on July 1st, I perform work for a client, and the total for the work is USD $150.

In which scenario do I come out ahead on July 31?

Scenario A.) In which I process an "instant payment" for the client at the time of the services, and the client pays immediately via PayPal. PayPal takes out their 3%+$.30. I get the rest, and put it into my high-interest savings account which earns 5% annually and compounds monthly.

or

Scenario B.) In which I wait 30 days for a check to arrive in the mail, deposit the check's funds into the same 5% high-interest savings account. Assume that the check clears instantly, and that I have access to the full $150 on July 31.

So far, my guess is that if the 30-day window were expanded to 90 or 120 days, it would make sense to get-what-you-can right now, paypal fees be damned, but at 30 days, waiting for the check nets me more money.

I've checked out the wikipedia entry for Time Value of Money, but can't figure out the interest rate (decimal or integer?), period (month? year?). It sounds so easy, but my brain keeps getting in the way when it sees the equations.

FASB Pronouncements in HTML?

aliasless — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 22:08:46 -0800

Accountingfilter: Does FASB provide HTML versions of their pronouncements? If no, why not? All of the links on their website are pdf-based, as far as I can tell. If ever there was a set of documents suited to hypertext, it would be these (widely distributed and used for "serving the investing public", heavily footnoted, outline-styled, often tabular, frequent references to other paragraphs and documents, etc). It seems like such a waste to have something as mark-up-able as these documents to go languishing away in such an unwieldy format.

Accounting software for dunces

MasonDixon — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 10:22:38 -0800

I need accounting software that will help me manage 20-30 people's income and expenses. I am not an accountant, and write this question as a complete babe-in-the-woods in terms of accounting software.

I work in an organization that helps those on different types of government assistance manage their money. We receive their funds and then disburse it to rent, bills and personal spending.

All of the checks however are written through a single account not 20 different ones.

Which software do I need? Being able to track all of the transfers and to categorize expenses is absolutely necessary.

Vancouver accountants?

stavrosthewonderchicken — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 17:51:06 -0800

Possibly a longshot : can anyone recommend an accountant in Vancouver? I'm looking for one that can advise me on tax issues and possibly do some document preparation for me, particularly with regard to my lengthy and continuing expatriate status.

Also, a follow-on question: I've never actually sat down with an accountant who wasn't just a professional friend helping me out. My expectation is that I might be able to sit down with one to lay out my requirements and get a price estimate for the actual engagement, without charge. Is this the case, or will the initial consultation cost, and if so, what might I looking at, ballpark, for say the initial 20 minutes of his or her time?

Accountant recommendation in Chicago

smich — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 18:13:48 -0800

Can anyone recommend a good accountant in Chicago? My boyfriend is starting a small home-based business and needs someone to help him get (and keep) everything in order. Bonus if the accountant is in Ukrainian Village/Wicker Park.

Do I need an accountant?

monkey closet — Fri, 28 Jan 2005 02:53:52 -0800

Do I need an accountant? [MI] I work 3 days a week salaried, PAYE etc.
The rest of the time, I'm self employed as a musician.
All the tax stuff seems fairly straightforward to me, and I'm not getting caned for tax (in fact I've had a rebate two years in a row), but my general organization skills are poor (at best) and it strikes me paying an accountant would be much easier. However, the few options I've looked at seem prohibitively expensive.

Getting data from my bank account into Quickbooks?

subpixel — Thu, 27 Jan 2005 16:50:11 -0800

OwnershipSocietyFilter: Is this $50 trinket really the only way to get data from my bank account (Quicken Interchange Format) into Quickbooks? Intuit would like me to make a not-free call to ask the same question...

Tax and Stock Options

scarabic — Thu, 13 Jan 2005 15:49:22 -0800

I have exercised stock options and taken possession of a small number of shares. I have not sold anything, but am wondering how screwed I am, tax-wise. First, do I have to declare the value of the stock as "income" for the year that I acquired it? Second, if I should sell it, do I add the money I receive from that sale to my regular taxable income? Do I deduct the amount I paid in? Is the net difference subject to other taxes? Is this handle-able by an average person or do I need an accountant?

Where do SEC fines go?

Fupped Duck — Tue, 18 May 2004 05:35:52 -0800

So Lucent got fined yesterday, to the tune of mamny millions of dollars, byt the SEC for the criminal euphemism of Account Irregularities.
Like other high profile SEC investigations, why do they always mention the fine, but never discuss where the funds go?
Are they used to offset the defrauded investor's losses? Or does the gov't turn the investor's loss into it's gain by keeping the fine for its own purposes?