You may be wondering what your options are for a joint Roth IRA if you’re married and saving for retirement with your spouse. Such an investment option doesn’t exist, but there are nonetheless some ways that couples can invest for retirement together. You Can’t Open a Joint Roth IRA With a Spouse It’s understandable that you might want to combine retirement savings efforts with your spouse by contributing to the same Roth IRA, but there’s no such thing as a joint Roth IRA....

If you’re an aspiring homebuyer or looking to refinance, negotiating your mortgage rate can save you thousands of dollars. Learn more about how mortgage rates are determined so you can put yourself in the best position to negotiate. Factors That Determine Your Mortgage Rate Mortgage rates are primarily driven by what’s going on in the bond market and mortgage-backed securities, but then vary based on a number of additional factors....

If you have student loans, you may wonder whether it’s possible to settle student loan debt. While doing so is not impossible, it is very difficult. Below, we’ll discuss situations in which you can settle student loans, how student loan settlement works, and alternative options you may want to consider. When Can You Settle Student Loan Debt? If you have a large sum of student loan debt, you may be able to settle it....

Cash Flow A company’s cash flow at any point in time is the difference between its cash available at the beginning of an accounting period and at the end. The cash includes loan proceeds, investment income, and the sale of assets, and goes out to pay for operating expenses, direct expenses, principal debt service, and the purchase of assets such as equipment. When you operate a small business, cash is king....

The difficulty in getting approved for a loan stems from a variety of unique challenges facing small business owners that go beyond the prevailing economic climate. With just a little insight, though, you can identify the unique issues that make it hard to get a small business loan, ways to overcome them, and alternative sources of funding to successfully finance your venture. The Challenges Small Businesses Face With Loans Small businesses are more likely to confront the following financial and operational issues than their larger counterparts:...

Learn more about choosing your HSA beneficiaries, whom you can name, and how they will deal with taxes. Naming a Beneficiary The person or people you name receive the funds that are left over from your health savings account. You can name anyone you’d like to receive what’s left, but you can’t make them the owner of the account. You can also name a trust if you have one, but like a person, you can’t make the trust the new owner of the account either....

But just because you are at the beginning of your career doesn’t mean that you don’t have significant accomplishments to include in your resume. As a college student or recent graduate, you have many achievements that will qualify you for internships, summer jobs, and your first post-graduation position. You can also highlight the skills that best qualify you for the jobs for which you’re applying. Taking the time to show the employer that you have the right skills will help get your application considered for an interview....

There are many ways you can respond. The most important things to remember when answering questions about teamwork are to remain positive and to provide specific examples. Why Teamwork Interview Questions Are Important With these questions, interviewers can get a sense of whether or not you like working on a team, how well you work in groups, and what role you tend to take on a team project (for example, a leader, a mediator, a follower)....

The first page or two of the business plan will be the Executive Summary and the Table of Contents. Those pages are written last because you don’t really know what you want to say in the Executive Summary until you write the entire business plan and you can’t write the Table of Contents until you finish the plan. Background for Corporate Values Statement Instead, we start with your Company Overview and your company’s values statement....

Eliminating conflict entirely would cause its own problems: there would be no diversity of opinion, and no way for us to catch and correct flawed plans and policies. What is Conflict Management? Conflict management, also known as conflict resolution, involves having a workplace that precludes conflict and a management team that successfully handles and resolves workplace issues. What Are Conflict Management Skills? The aim for professionals in the workplace should not be to avoid conflict, but to resolve it in an effective manner....

Higher oil prices usually lead to a quick rise in the price of gasoline because oil is its main component (about 70%). For example, when the price for a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil, a grade of crude oil used as a benchmark in U.S. oil pricing, hit a seven-year high at $85.64 last month, the national average price for regular unleaded gas rose about 20 cents per gallon....

The Problem With Dual Agency A dual agent is one who represents both the seller and the buyer and who should—at least in theory—have a fiduciary duty to each party. Fiduciary duty covers six major areas, according to the National Association of Realtors: LoyaltyConfidentialityDisclosureObedienceReasonable care and diligenceAccounting A dual agent is obligated to provide the “utmost care, integrity, honesty and loyalty” to both the buyer and the seller, and that can certainly be a conflict of interest if a listing agent who already has a fiduciary duty to the seller should bring an offer to that seller on your behalf as the buyer....

Many proprietary (“prop”) trading firms set up a structure that allows the trader to receive a cut of the profits they generate through trades. This arrangement used by prop trading firms has the potential to be lucrative, but there are steep challenges that can make it difficult to generate those profits. Being a Proprietary Day Trader A prop day trader typically works as a contractor to a prop trading firm rather than as an employee....

Why a Penalty? You’ll most likely have to pay a penalty if you withdraw money from a certificate of deposit (CD) or other time-deposit savings account before it matures. This fee is charged by the bank or financial institution, and it’s withheld from your certificate of deposit or other account. Your CD deposit usually earns more interest than a typical savings account. You must commit to leaving your money with the financial institution for a prescribed period of time in exchange for this favorable interest rate....

Cost-plus pricing is a very simple cost-based pricing strategy for setting the prices of goods and services. With cost-plus pricing you first add the direct material cost, the direct labor cost, and overhead to determine what it costs the company to offer the product or service. A markup percentage is added to the total cost to determine the selling price. This markup percentage is profit. Thus, you need to start out with a solid and accurate understanding of all the business’ costs and where those costs are coming from....

New and existing loans can affect your credit in several ways: They help you build credit if you successfully make payments. They hurt your credit if you pay late or default on loans. They reduce your ability to borrow (which might not directly affect your credit scores). They cause slight damage to your credit at first, but they can easily recover if you make payments on time. How Building Credit Works Your credit is all about your history as a borrower....

Used clothing and household items are likely to be worth a lot less than you paid for them, but they still have to be in reasonably good condition if you want to take a deduction. For any donations you make over $250, you’ll need to make sure to get a receipt from the organization you’re donating it to. Determining a Donated Item’s Fair Market Value The IRS uses fair market value (FMV) to establish the amount you can deduct for almost all donated items....

Starting with the week ended May 15—seen as the midpoint of when states began to announce their intention to end emergency benefits—and continuing through June 26, the study showed continuing jobless claims dropped 12% in states intending to halt emergency benefits, compared with a 7% decline in states that had no plans to terminate the benefits. The chart below shows claims dropping roughly in tandem (about 10%) from the beginning of April through mid-May, before states began announcing plans to drop extended benefits, and then diverging sharply after the announcements began rolling in....

It is possible to target a steel index. Even then, you would have to trade multiple stocks to fill your basket and get the targeted index price. In both situations–index or individual stocks–you must pay commissions and fees on the trades. These costs can add up rather quickly. For those reasons, it can be better to buy a steel ETF, if that is your target sector. With one trade, you get instant exposure to the industry and save on commissions....

Learn more about equity of redemption. Equity of Redemption Definition and Examples Equity of redemption allows homeowners who have fallen behind on their mortgage to get caught up and keep their homes. When homeowners fall behind on their mortgages, lenders start the foreclosure process. In this process, lenders take possession of the home and sell it at auction to pay off the mortgage. If the lender has started the foreclosure process, the homeowner can redeem the mortgage using equity of redemption....