Regulations on this will differ by state. The best move would be to find a local real estate lawyer. They wil instruct you on how to file all the proper paperwork with the local government, and also advise you on things you haven't thought about, like how to structure your wills to make sure everyone is protected in the event something unfortunate happens to either of you.
Also don't use this private transaction as an excuse to save money to skip any steps. Go get the title search and inspection done. You don't want any surprises. If the inspection finds a fundamental problem, you might still go through with the purchase, but at least you'll know up front what you're in for.
There definitely are optics available for single mode. The problem is that the wavelength will need to match what you are being sent from your provider. So we can't really answer your question, you will have to ask them.
1310nm is quite common but we can't assume your link is 1310nm.
Most states tax you according to where you live, not where you work. Several exceptions exist, though. One notable exception is New York State, which will tax you if your employer is based there, even if you don’t live there, unless it can be demonstrated that the employer needs you to live outside the state to do your job. (Google “NY convenience of the employer” for more info on that.)
I would talk with your HR department. It’s possible that they determined you are responsible for taxes in both states, and misfiled the paperwork.
Making any investment yearly at the same time is attempting to time the market, it’s a bet that the market will be lowest at that point vs the rest of the year. Otherwise, why pick Jan 1? Why not pick July 4? If the price is lower on Jul 4, you end up with more shares, as well as a small increase due to 6 months of interest.
When you DCA, you basically admit that you don’t know how prices are going to move, and you are spreading out your risk. Yes, DCA over 12 months may leave you with slightly less than if you put it all in on Jan 1, assuming the price was the lowest on Jan 1. But if you have monthly investments that whole time, it’s likely that at least one or two of those might have been bought at a lower price than Jan, and it may turn out DCA could result in more shares of whatever you are buying.
The “time in the market” adage applies over years, not months. On a scale of 10 years+, it doesn’t really matter whether you bought in Jan or July.
The theory is not based on interest rates, but rather tax loss harvesting. People have a better idea of what their tax liability might be at the end of the year, and it’s possible they might want to reduce their Capital Gains tax bill by selling positions that are negative to lock in a loss, offsetting some other gain. That means more selling in December, so it would make sense to buy as close to Jan 1 as possible, when the extra selling stops.
But it’s just another way to time the market, and timing the market is a bad strategy for the average investor. Just keep investing on your set schedule, and you will find that you still do OK, with much less drama.
Most often, people end up trailing their index fund returns and giving up with a cheap lesson.
Or, even worse, doing much better than their index fund after a Crypto surge, but thinking “I’ll just wait a little bit longer”, and then watching it all crash. So you were better at one point, until you weren’t.
Remember, kids, you haven’t made any money until you sell.
Yes, it is, because the general public views crypto as a single thing, while there is a big difference between BTC and ETH, on their own chains, with their own network effect backing them, and a token which literally anyone can start on their own and manipulate its market to make it look like a good investment before dumping.
So the general public shouldn’t really be getting into this without understanding these risks. It’s not just a matter of “these are more risky”, it’s that there is a huge difference in risk that the casual investor who is uninformed about Crypto can’t spot.
If you’re really unsure, it might be worth your peace of mind to find a fee-only financial advisor and pay them a few hundred dollars for a consultation.
Where can you go to find one of these, and make sure they have the proper credentials?
That is sort of true, but incredibly misleading. I’ve been poking around crypto for quite a while now. The concept of cryptocurrencies are going to stick around, they’re just code and large numbers, after all. But there’s no reason at all to think they will continue to hold their value. Particularly since governments are starting to understand that they will never be able to regulate crypto entirely, but can heavily regulate the on and off ramps.
And while there are a few key cryptos that have proven they have enough ongoing demand to stick around, those have already gone through their initial “to the moon” phases and are not likely to turn people into crypto millionaires anymore.
So crypto these days is like a lotto ticket, except the payout potential for all the “blue chip” cryptos is no longer that great compared to the downside of the entire sector tanking. That leaves the new coins to bet on, but too many of them are ERC-20 tokens (or their counterparts on the Ethereum clones) that are way too easy to make (and rugpull).
So it’s not enough that you think Crypto as a whole is here to stay, you need to look at the thing you are buying. OG BTC and Ethereum are relatively “safe” bets in the space, but it’s still an open question whether they are more likely to see a 10x gain or 10x loss in the next four years. Buying the Hot ERC-20 token of the day is even riskier.
If you do have 20% of your net assets in crypto, I advise you to DCA some out. That’s what I did. Of course, it went up afterwards, and if I had held, I would have more on paper right now. But I have the unique ability to say I’ve already taken 10x out over what I put in, and I have a bunch left. If BTC has another 10x left, I retire early. But if it all evaporates, I can still eat.
N00bs who are interested in crypto now should stick with BTC or ETH, on reputable exchanges that openly state they keep customer assets in reserve, with full KYC vetting, and a little at a time. Crypto exchanges’ trading fees are normally super low, and there isn’t really a lot size limit. You can often buy $50 worth of ETH at the same percentage in fees as $5000. They also often expose their whole order book and let you place limit orders, so it can be a good place to learn to trade without much in your account before taking a larger amount to the stock market yourself.
The problem isn’t necessarily flipping houses, if the ones doing the flipping really are improving the property and are able to refurbish old properties to be more appealing. If they put in the work, they deserve to make money off of that - but they only make their money if they sell.
The problem is corporations who buy up housing stock, with no immediate plans to resell. They view houses like a commodity, and if they constrain supply in certain areas they can artificially create profit. This profit, though, comes at the expense of everyone who is looking for a home at the time.
I think the solution is for localities to step in and crank up property taxes for residential units that are not either occupied or actively on the market. Once a company keeps a property off the market for a year, make it much more painful for them to hold it for another year.
You would be evaluating the company just like any other individual stock, which means looking at its revenue, profit, debt, cash on hand, and other financial metrics. As well as its business model, and whether that business has any growth potential. But at the end of the day, the price is driven purely by how much other people want the stock in rhe market. I don’t mean to discourage you from Learning about it if it interests you, but there are a ton of financial planners and analysts who make this their career, and are still wrong often.
If I were in your shoes, I would put in as much as you think you can afford over the term of the ESPP buy-in, and then simply plan to sell them all once as soon as you can. They will take all that money, and buy shares with it at the discounted price, and then when they hit your account, they will be “worth” the current price. The price you sell them at will differ a small amount from the price they were issued at, because the market will have moved in that time. The difference between the discounted price and the current price will show up on your W2 as income, and you will have to pay tax on that, which may eat into your refund little bit. But not only is that difference free money for you (after taxes), but you get back all of what you paid in, making it a form of forced saving. And it may be enough of a bundle of cash that if you still wanted to invest you could then buy an index fund which will still go up and down with the market but has less risk if any individual company underperforms.
Edit: just realized you said you were in the EU, I think all the ESPP rules are similar, but possibly in Metric instead. :)