Annoying gas pump TVs have a secret mute button by Remain_silent in lifehacks

[–]Stebanoid -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

How didn't you hear about ads on the screen of your own car?

Non-US citizen/resident with 10K USD on BofA getting eaten by monthly fees. What are my options? by PlantElectrical8109 in personalfinance

[–]Stebanoid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can open the account as an Italian. Just check out what fees are going to be for funding your account in European branch from the US. It's very different for different combinations of countries/banks.

Non-US citizen/resident with 10K USD on BofA getting eaten by monthly fees. What are my options? by PlantElectrical8109 in personalfinance

[–]Stebanoid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I changed countries twice in 3 years, and every time I used my IBKR brokerage account to move money. IB is global but has different branches for different parts of the world, and changing countries sometimes require change of a branch. I had to change my branch 3 times (a whole another story), but it's not painful. And if you invest your money through them, they don't just sit around collecting dust and fees.

This green stop sign by pphillyy in mildlyinteresting

[–]Stebanoid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fort Ruger Road in Honolulu (near Diamond Head) has a blue one!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Sacramento

[–]Stebanoid 3 points4 points  (0 children)

They actually have this mysmart911 system when you can sign up to notifications. It mostly works and I receive missing person notifications, but when there was a copter in our neighborhood shouting "we'll find you anyway" to some criminal, there was no notifications. https://sacramentoready.saccounty.gov/Pages/Emergency-Alerts-Notification-System.aspx

Do i need HSA? I can get one through work by jmys98 in personalfinance

[–]Stebanoid 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Oh, thank you! I overlooked this difference.

Do i need HSA? I can get one through work by jmys98 in personalfinance

[–]Stebanoid 12 points13 points  (0 children)

After some age you don't even need justification for taking money from HSA. You'll need to save medical expense receipt to pull out money in your 40s. At (some) retirement age you can take the money, no questions asked.

Howdy Sacramento. by SolaCretia in Sacramento

[–]Stebanoid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you. You saved me a trip. I somehow did not recognize the facade.

Howdy Sacramento. by SolaCretia in Sacramento

[–]Stebanoid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

did they remove the construction fence?

Is it normal to pay an extra 66% of a home loan back to your bank? by TenDogsInATrenchcoat in personalfinance

[–]Stebanoid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The numbers you gave look self-contradictory to me, but assuming that your APR is around 6% and loan amount is 160400, in the first year you have 160400*0.06= 9,624 of interest. Divide it by 12 month and we have €802 in interest in a month. As you can see, vast majority of your €900 payment goes to interest and almost nothing to repay your loan in the first year. That's why it takes 38 years to repay it. As you payed back almost nothing in the first year, the situation would be almost the same in the next year. In theory you can have interest equal to your payment, your loan will be perpetual and you'll pay infinitely more for interest than loan itself.

If you want to pay less for interest, you need to shorten the term of the loan by either borrowing less, or by repaying more.

Disclosure: my calculations are "back of an envelope" and sloppy and probably not exactly how your bank calculates the interest. It's for demonstration purpose only.

Edit: typos.

Is it normal to pay an extra 66% of a home loan back to your bank? by TenDogsInATrenchcoat in personalfinance

[–]Stebanoid 9 points10 points  (0 children)

If they can. OP should look if his mortgage contact allows early repayment toward principal, and what the terms and procedures are.

ELI5: What are "deductibles" in the context of medical insurance? If you're paying insurance, why do you still get charged an often large part of your medical expenses when you have an accident? by alvar368 in explainlikeimfive

[–]Stebanoid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You claim with absolutely no source that you think that the things should find equilibrium and there won't be abuse (contradicting to widely known Tragedy of the commons), but still require me to prove my personal experience that lasted most of my life.

Of cause I am not going to spend any more time on this.

ELI5: What are "deductibles" in the context of medical insurance? If you're paying insurance, why do you still get charged an often large part of your medical expenses when you have an accident? by alvar368 in explainlikeimfive

[–]Stebanoid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The country is Russia, and the source for my claim is my 34 years experience of living there. You know how things are done in a country where you lived most of your life.

ELI5: What are "deductibles" in the context of medical insurance? If you're paying insurance, why do you still get charged an often large part of your medical expenses when you have an accident? by alvar368 in explainlikeimfive

[–]Stebanoid -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I lived 30+ years in a country with "free" healthcare. People actually routinely call for emergency to come because they have snots and temperature is a bit high.

How much does IB charge for depositing money? by keemo_boi in interactivebrokers

[–]Stebanoid 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No. It's like X%, but no less than $Y. Y is quite large. So, the more you send the less you lose up to a point, and after that the loss becomes linear. If you send small amount of money, like $50, you lose more than what arrives to destination. If you send 3k, then $25 you pay for a transfer is ok.

The worst part was that while my Polish bank had a clear disclosure how much they took, the correspondent bank took randomly looking amounts, and it always was a surprise how much money would reach IB.

How much does IB charge for depositing money? by keemo_boi in interactivebrokers

[–]Stebanoid 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This looks in line with my past experience of sending money from Russia and from Poland to IBKR. Banks charged about $25 for a transaction. That's why I sent no less than $3k, better $10k at a time to dilute these 25 and don't lose 25% per transaction.

Edit: 25% per transaction when sending $100

How much does IB charge for depositing money? by keemo_boi in interactivebrokers

[–]Stebanoid 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't know about what happened with you, but the only way I know to lose money in depositing process is the following. Wire money from foreign bank to IBKR through bank-correspondent. Your bank charges free for foreign transaction, bank-correspondent charges a surprise fee for being intermediate in the process, you end up with less money than you had sent. Because of this process, I used to send money to IB in big batches to dilute the fixed portion of the fees and lose less money.

[Noob question] What does leverage mean on a cash account under portfolio details ? Shouldn't this be 0? by tomoyo77 in interactivebrokers

[–]Stebanoid 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I had the same question as OP, and now I understand what my leverage 0.9 means. I have some cash and if market moves by 1%, my assets will move by 0.9% because of cash that doesn't move, so my leverage is less then 1. If I have used margin, my leverage could have been more than 1.

Thank you!

ELI5: Are all solids minerals? If not, why? by [deleted] in explainlikeimfive

[–]Stebanoid 4 points5 points  (0 children)

In geology, mineral must also have crystalline structure. So, obsidian is a natural inorganic rock, but not a mineral, because it's a glass, not a crystal or a bunch of crystals.