The Financial Forum Questions Thread: flame-free zone to ask your finance questions - everyone welcome

skwiggey said: It is going to be a mess.

Exactly. Would you rather have one thread be a mess or the entire forum be a mess of duplicate and stupid threads where information gets so spread out you can't find anyting.

Good luck keeping this flame free!

What actually needs to be done is to have a minimum post count to create new threads. ie, you can't make a new thread until you have 10, 20 posts. That would help filter out the trash a little. That being said, there is no 100% effective solution to the problem.

richfish13 said: So instead of posting a dumb question in a thread where there are already questions, they will still create new threads so that they are the only one who has a question.

asdf9876 said: Problem: A lot of people are asking the same questions over and over again without searching and without doing any basic research on their own.

Sorry, I don't get it. If they're not doing any research, what makes you think they're going to know to post in this thread? (kamaltk beat me on this point!)

So instead of flaming them, asking them to go to an appropriate thread, we'll flame them and tell them to go to this thread, where they will then be directed to the appropriate place flame-free?

hmm, going through and looking at the people commonly giving reds:
xpguy-never seen him contribute anything useful. all he does is neg. he's useless.
gforce841
skwiggey
bozo007
asdf9876-the original poster for this new thread. seems to neg a lot also.

so, what's the point of making a thread red? it seems these people make it red cause it doesn't relate to them. so, what if happens to relate to somebody else? oh, the problem is then that person didn't search.

so basically, you expect every new thread to be something new. ideally, that'd be fun, read something new and exciting every day on the forum. but practically speaking, there is no such thing as infinitely many new topics for discussion. this forum would be a lot slower, and not as much discussion would go on.
right now, a lot of topics may be redundant, but sometimes they open up new points of view that weren't discussed before.

To answer s0ss remark, I do rate negative a lot questions which go against the rules of this forum and/or have been answered repeatedly and could be found on a quick search and/or questions that could only be answered by the company they are asking about.

Go check out my dozen or two dozen latest posts. I do contribute a lot and I'm frequently rated green by many people including SIS.

By the way, I can't remember when I saw the last constructive helpful post by s0ss.

Actually, there is a simple solution to all of this. Noob hits "new topic". Page pops up asking for TITLE ONLY and they title it "What should I do with $183.79?", and hit "OK". Next page shows search results, with a heading that says "From your title, it is highly likely that this question has been answered before. Please review the threads below before starting a new topic". They can then choose to proceed (at the bottom of the page) or cancel after finding a good match. It will even be good for them to see similar stupid question threads with lots of red. Once you have posted X posts or Y threads you no longer are confronted with this title search.

FW, please deposit $64,000 in my FatCash account for this phee-nominal idea.

Is there a "best" place to apply for a Citi mtvU card, such as one that you get rewards for applying through?

After looking through cardoffers.com as suggested, I see that the bonus is $33 from them.

kronus said: Is there a "best" place to apply for a Citi mtvU card, such as one that you get rewards for applying through?

If it isn't listed on cardoffers.com, then I wouldn't know where to try. I have only used cardoffers.com or the citi website directly.

Finally! A thread where i can ask...

Should I spend more money than i earn and then ask you guys how to get out of debt without spending less money?

xpguy said:
1) topics that don't belong in FWF (maybe belong in a different section of FW, like off topic or online auctions)

I've never seen you actually post that. Just the red with no comment.


2) topics that people don't even make a reasonable attempt at searching before posting

So you don't like posts that require crystal balls but some how you have developed an extra sense or the ability to travel back in time to tell exactly which words a person may have tried to search before the post? My favorite are the repeat abbreviations around the board. You search for credit card, apparently you should have searched for CC. Go to the Hot Deals you search for CC but you get Circuit City, should have searched for credit card.

3) topics that are generally answered in the FAQ

Like the OP said. It's old and outdated

4) topics that ask for what will happen in the future and require a crystal ball (should I put my money in CDs now, or wait til next year, should I buy a house now?)
There are trends in the market place, and forecasts available. Just linking these forecast might be useful. And based on someone's financial situation, sometimes it makes sense to rent a year, or wait a year to get a bigger deposit. You're over simplifying some questions asked here.

5) topics that are basically a waste of time (like making money off of verifiying deposits)

You consider it a stupid question, others might not. Thus the point of this thread.

6) topics where the OP hasn't invested a resonable amount of time to answering before posting (I want to open a new car wash business, what do I do?)

Again, you don't have a crystal ball either. You have no idea if they invested time into what they are asking about. Just because the question was formulated badly doesn't mean they have done no research. English is not even the primary language for some members. You could try asking what research they have done, asking for info instead of plastering red all over the place. I am surprised you have enough blood in your body left to type with all the bleeding you do all over this forum.

7) topics that link news articles that are just posted with no commentary. If you're going to post a news article, at least make some intelligent comments and opinions about it, instead of just a link

I will agree with you on this one. A link plus thoughts would be nice. I wouldn't give red but I don't fault you for doing so. My red is a rare commodity. It goes to blatantly idiotic ideas.

8) topics that can easily be answered with a phone call to your credit card company, bank, or store

I agree here. Although I have seen some topics you gave red even after they called the company and were still confused.

9) topics that pretty much boast about a person's financial status (I make $200k a year, what can I do to make more money, or what am I doing wrong??)
[Q/]
I remember one thread where a guy talked about not having x-amount as some book mentioned he shoudl have by x-years of age.

And if there is a thread, "what do I do with $1500" a redundant thread is "what do I do with "$2000". Some people think that just because the dollar amounts are different, that it warrants a new thread
Maybe I am expecting too much.

You are. And there are some limitations to what a person can invest in based on the amount they have to invest initially, such as some Mutual Funds or MMFs.</blockquote></blockquote>

xpguy said: s0ssos said:
so, what's the point of making a thread red? it seems these people make it red cause it doesn't relate to them. so, what if happens to relate to somebody else? oh, the problem is then that person didn't search.

so basically, you expect every new thread to be something new. ideally, that'd be fun, read something new and exciting every day on the forum. but practically speaking, there is no such thing as infinitely many new topics for discussion. this forum would be a lot slower, and not as much discussion would go on.
right now, a lot of topics may be redundant, but sometimes they open up new points of view that weren't discussed before.

I give red to:
1) topics that don't belong in FWF (maybe belong in a different section of FW, like off topic or online auctions)
2) topics that people don't even make a reasonable attempt at searching before posting
3) topics that are generally answered in the FAQ
4) topics that ask for what will happen in the future and require a crystal ball (should I put my money in CDs now, or wait til next year, should I buy a house now?)
5) topics that are basically a waste of time (like making money off of verifiying deposits)
6) topics where the OP hasn't invested a resonable amount of time to answering before posting (I want to open a new car wash business, what do I do?)
7) topics that link news articles that are just posted with no commentary. If you're going to post a news article, at least make some intelligent comments and opinions about it, instead of just a link
8) topics that can easily be answered with a phone call to your credit card company, bank, or store
9) topics that pretty much boast about a person's financial status (I make $200k a year, what can I do to make more money, or what am I doing wrong??)

No I don't expect infinite topics that are not repeated. I welcome redundant topics where the original isn't archived. And if there is a thread, "what do I do with $1500" a redundant thread is "what do I do with "$2000". Some people think that just because the dollar amounts are different, that it warrants a new thread
Maybe I am expecting too much.


THis is the whole problem with the ratings. It means 9 different things to just one person. Imagine how many meanings it has across the board. Rating something red is worthless. Personally I find the red threads to be the best ones, they are often quite funny. But they also cross the line into mean-spiritedness.

Ultimately getting rated red, and then arguing about it, is a supreme waste of energy. For example, I post links to news articles with no comments all the time. I could give a crap if someone gives me red about that. I actually find it funny that someone cares enough to click a red button for that.

This forum has so much good information and smart people, but it is not organized well. Look around at other information sites and you will see much better tools, indexing, searching techniques, webpages, portals, etc. THis is like usenet newsgroups at the dawn of the internet. After a few months you get used to it. My advice is take what you can from here, help others, and try to have some fun too.

In order for this thread to be useful, MOD needs to sticky it.

Although FWF is definitely the most dreadful place to post, I understand why. I commonly neg too and agree it is necessary. However, I would suggest not replying too these repetitive and stupid questions, so that the thread gets pushed down.
Give a big neg and make a small comment preferably with a link in the quick summary that the same topic was discussed earlier. Similar to the REPOST link in HD. This way the post does not get bumped, and the OP gets an idea where to start from.
The flames are amusing. Let’s agree, most of the regulars here have an excellent sense of humor and this gets carried away.

I said: 1) topics that don't belong in FWF (maybe belong in a different section of FW, like off topic or online auctions)
Nessy said:
I've never seen you actually post that. Just the red with no comment.
I don't need to post the obvious. I think other people agree who also vote red in those threads.


I said: 2) topics that people don't even make a reasonable attempt at searching before posting
Nessy said:
So you don't like posts that require crystal balls but some how you have developed an extra sense or the ability to travel back in time to tell exactly which words a person may have tried to search before the post? My favorite are the repeat abbreviations around the board. You search for credit card, apparently you should have searched for CC. Go to the Hot Deals you search for CC but you get Circuit City, should have searched for credit card.

You are talking about the minorty of posts where the search word doesn't match. The majory of posts can be found with a simple search. I don't fault anyone searching for "how to start a business" and all the relevant information was in an existing topic titled "work for yourself making big bucks". Sure there are abbreviations, but no one searches for CC in hot deals, when you can limit the search for CC in finance only. Can the search be improved? Yes, especially when you search "best credit card" and all the hits are red and repeats of the same question. I think all these useless topics of asking the same questions over and over again, have crippled the search. If everyone who posts bothered to read the thread "Please read BEFORE posting: A Guide to Maximizing the Usefulness of FW Finance", this would eliminate 90% of the clutter and repeat posts.


I said: 3) topics that are generally answered in the FAQ
Nessy said:
Like the OP said. It's old and outdated

True, but it's a good place to start reading with still a lot of valuable information. Importantly, the tips on how to search, especially like tips from PeanutButterAndJelly. Usually the OP that gets a lot of reds, doesn't even bother to read it. Again, people don't read the thread "Please read BEFORE posting:..."


I said: 4) topics that ask for what will happen in the future and require a crystal ball (should I put my money in CDs now, or wait til next year, should I buy a house now?)
Nessy said:
There are trends in the market place, and forecasts available. Just linking these forecast might be useful. And based on someone's financial situation, sometimes it makes sense to rent a year, or wait a year to get a bigger deposit. You're over simplifying some questions asked here.

There are threads already that can be found in FW Financem if not elswhere like Yahoo business news. Examples are the fed meetings thread, housing bubble thread, and various resources outside FW like rent vs buy calculators, which can be easily found using google.


I said: 5) topics that are basically a waste of time (like making money off of verifiying deposits)
Nessy said:
You consider it a stupid question, others might not. Thus the point of this thread.
I think the majority consensus considers those threads a waste of time also, hence all the negative ratings. If the majority considers it valuable, it would get a lot of green votes. How many threads are there where my negs are the minority votes?


I said: 6) topics where the OP hasn't invested a resonable amount of time to answering before posting (I want to open a new car wash business, what do I do?)
Nessy said:
Again, you don't have a crystal ball either. You have no idea if they invested time into what they are asking about. Just because the question was formulated badly doesn't mean they have done no research. English is not even the primary language for some members.
These are the threads where people want to be spoonfed and come to FW first instead of google. If they invested an ounce of time, they would be asking more detailed questions and not general questions. I've never negged anyone solely for their poor English skills.

panchoisthedog said: another noob question:

I am opening a traditional ira this week, should I put the the max amount $4000 in at once, or should I split the contributions into equal pieces before I file my taxes? How many pieces (weekly, monthly) should I divide the contributions into?

P.S.
Before lurking on FW:
I had at most two weeks pay in savings at any one time.
I had a 2000 balance average on my credit cards at any one time.
No plan for retirement
Spend almost every penny of every pay check.
Since:
6 months of pay in high yeild MM
No CC balances (paid in full every month)
There is a plan for retirement, still working on the fine points however.
Now saving about 25% of each paycheck.
Thanks FW

That's a tricky one even the experts disagree on. Definitely put enough in initially to avoid minimum fees.

My opinion: I would put it all in at once. However, once the next year starts in January, I'd put in the money as you earn it so you can dollar cost average more. However, I'd hate for you to put it all in and the market to drop 5% next week. So as long as you are NOT paying any loads I'd put in a weekly amount so that you hit $4,000 by the end of the year (actually you have until April but I'd do it by the end of the year). Then I'd put in money as you earn it as fast as you can (assuming you have your emergency fund) starting Jan 1 for next year.

Congrats on starting to save!

asdf9876 said: That's a tricky one even the experts disagree on. Definitely put enough in initially to avoid minimum fees.

My opinion: I would put it all in at once. However, once the next year starts in January, I'd put in the money as you earn it so you can dollar cost average more. However, I'd hate for you to put it all in and the market to drop 5% next week. So as long as you are NOT paying any loads I'd put in a weekly amount so that you hit $4,000 by the end of the year (actually you have until April but I'd do it by the end of the year). Then I'd put in money as you earn it as fast as you can (assuming you have your emergency fund) starting Jan 1 for next year.

Congrats on starting to save!I think the research studies all show that dollar cost averaging earns lower returns than lump-sum investing. The only real value is that the investor feels more secure about it than putting the money all in at once. If you can afford it, put the $4K in now, invest it, and then forget about it for a while. You are investing for the long term so it really doesn't matter what happens in the next week, month or even year.

Personally, I hope that the market crashes soon! I have most of my money in the stock market but would love the chance to buy more stock cheap and make a lot of money as it increases over the next couple decades.

I think the research studies all show that dollar cost averaging earns lower returns than lump-sum investing. The only real value is that the investor feels more secure about it than putting the money all in at once. If you can afford it, put the $4K in now, invest it, and then forget about it for a while. You are investing for the long term so it really doesn't matter what happens in the next week, month or even year.

Personally, I hope that the market crashes soon! I have most of my money in the stock market but would love the chance to buy more stock cheap and make a lot of money as it increases over the next couple decades.

Well TVM suggests that sooner is better, however I think part of the research was referring to something else entirely. It's better to start investing now in small amounts than saving up and and thinking you have to have a large amount to even begin. That is assuming you don't have the 4k to start with. Also 4k isn't a huge amount, neither is say 10k. As for long term investing, theoretically it shouldn't matter but the fact is, people have limits. So if you can't handle putting in 4k and having it drop to 2k tomorrow, then it does matter, and you wouldn't be alone in that mentality.

so like asdf9876, if you can handle it, put all your money in now and then add bits at a time as you earn it.

And you're saying that these min amounts can't be found on the sticky "Best current APY/APRs: The Daughter of The Mother..."?
And these min investments on some mutual funds can't be found by googling the fund and reading about it?
Maybe you expect people to recommend specific mutual funds based on a person's liquid cash assets?



Nope. I didn't say any of the above.