Looks like I will be doing Snork Maiden's taxes. The software she used last year won't let her file as a non-resident alien this year, even though that is clearly what she is. All foreign students count as non-resident aliens irrespective of how long they've been in the US. On the other hand I don't yet have a green card but count as a resident for tax purposes.
Back when I was a grad student I used to file a 1040-EZ even though I was a non-resident alien. For most people you pay less taxes that way. Yes, it is cheating on taxes. So we are going to file properly. The only software I use for taxes is Excel and the IRS's forms and instructions. My taxes take several hours to figure out when I get down to it. I reckon Snork Maiden's federal return will take less than half an hour. The Vermont return will be a novelty for me. I've completed Massachusetts and New York tax forms for myself before and also a California return (not my own).
Trading went pretty well today. Of my two new indicators for overbought conditions, one said to go short today and one formally said not to, but was pretty close to short. So I was short and the market went down. My overnight trade (short 2 NQ) was profitable and then I initiated another trade (short 3 NQ) in the afternoon which I held for about breakeven at the close. I also have 4 QQQQ puts and short 1200 QQQQ shares as my core trading position. So now I am effectively short the equivalent of one big NDX contract or 4000 QQQQ shares. At midday I was only short the equivalent of 1600 QQQQ shares. I'm down this month in trading but despite the big blow out my net worth performance has not been affected at all. I only have about 6-7% of my net worth allocated to trading. Good investment performance and the rise in the Australian Dollar have easily offset losing 15% of my trading capital in one day. That is the benefit of true diversification.
Showing posts with label Immigration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Immigration. Show all posts
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Sunday, January 07, 2007
December Report
Got back Friday from a long trip to Vermont and am getting up to speed - the coming week will be spent mainly on preparations for teaching the next semester. Good news is that Thursday I got an e-mail from my lawyer that she has received the documents to go to the next stage in my green card application - the actual application for the visa itself. The process started in 2003 and looks like being finally concluded this year. With a green card I will have much more freedom of employment and location than I do now as an H1-B holder.
Income and Expenditure
The monthly report for February explained the basic layout of these monthly statements. This month there is a new line for "tax credits". The current (non-retirement) investment returns are reported on a pre-tax basis. Part of the total return on investment includes foreign (mainly Australian taxes) paid on dividends. I get to claim these back on my annual US tax return. The "current other income" includes my net tax refunds (this category is mainly salary). If it wasn't for these credits my reported "other income" would be lower as my tax bill would be higher. Up till now I have been doing a kind of double-counting on these reports and slightly exaggerating my actual saving and income. For the moment I've chosen to compute saving by deducting both expenditure and tax credits from total income. I guess I should report all income on a pre-tax basis and then include a line for taxes. This would mean changing my accounting systems to actually record gross income monthly and then include stuff like health insurance in spending. At the moment my reported salary figures are take home pay after all deductions. So my expenditure is also somewhat under-reported too I guess...
Anyway, getting to this months results:
Expenditure was $US2,092 - $500 more than last month partly due to travel and spending on my trip to visit my girlfriend in Vermont - 64% of take home pay ($3,290) which is much reduced due to maxing out my 403(b) contributions from this month forward. Only one of my two new higher retirement contributions posted to my account and so expect to see retirement contributions ($1,180) higher next month. Non-retirement invesment returns were very strong this month ($6,564) and were the most significant factor in increasing net worth by $10,149.
Net Worth Performance
Net worth rose by $US10,149 to $US364,714 and in Australian Dollars gained $A13,322 to $A462,366. A net worth of half a million Aussie Dollars is now clearly in sight but one never knows what fluctuations could occur on the way there...
Investment Performance
Investment return in US Dollars was 2.21% vs. a 2.26% gain in the MSCI World Index, which I use as my overall benchmark and a 1.40% gain in the S&P 500. Non-retirement accounts gained 3.51%. The contributions of the different investments and trades is as follows:
The returns on all the individual investments are net of foreign exchange movements. Foreign currency losses appears at the bottom of the table together with the sum of all other investment income and expenses - mainly margin interest. Powertel again had one of the best percentage gains. The Everest Brown and Babcock entry covers returns on a listed fund of hedge funds and the management company itself which are both listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.
Asset Allocation
At the end of the month the portfolio had a beta of 0.90. 58% of the portfolio was in stocks, 45% in bonds, 7% in cash, and loans totalled -21%. The remainder was in the hedge fund type and real estate investments, futures value etc.
Income and Expenditure
The monthly report for February explained the basic layout of these monthly statements. This month there is a new line for "tax credits". The current (non-retirement) investment returns are reported on a pre-tax basis. Part of the total return on investment includes foreign (mainly Australian taxes) paid on dividends. I get to claim these back on my annual US tax return. The "current other income" includes my net tax refunds (this category is mainly salary). If it wasn't for these credits my reported "other income" would be lower as my tax bill would be higher. Up till now I have been doing a kind of double-counting on these reports and slightly exaggerating my actual saving and income. For the moment I've chosen to compute saving by deducting both expenditure and tax credits from total income. I guess I should report all income on a pre-tax basis and then include a line for taxes. This would mean changing my accounting systems to actually record gross income monthly and then include stuff like health insurance in spending. At the moment my reported salary figures are take home pay after all deductions. So my expenditure is also somewhat under-reported too I guess...
Anyway, getting to this months results:
Expenditure was $US2,092 - $500 more than last month partly due to travel and spending on my trip to visit my girlfriend in Vermont - 64% of take home pay ($3,290) which is much reduced due to maxing out my 403(b) contributions from this month forward. Only one of my two new higher retirement contributions posted to my account and so expect to see retirement contributions ($1,180) higher next month. Non-retirement invesment returns were very strong this month ($6,564) and were the most significant factor in increasing net worth by $10,149.
Net Worth Performance
Net worth rose by $US10,149 to $US364,714 and in Australian Dollars gained $A13,322 to $A462,366. A net worth of half a million Aussie Dollars is now clearly in sight but one never knows what fluctuations could occur on the way there...
Investment Performance
Investment return in US Dollars was 2.21% vs. a 2.26% gain in the MSCI World Index, which I use as my overall benchmark and a 1.40% gain in the S&P 500. Non-retirement accounts gained 3.51%. The contributions of the different investments and trades is as follows:
The returns on all the individual investments are net of foreign exchange movements. Foreign currency losses appears at the bottom of the table together with the sum of all other investment income and expenses - mainly margin interest. Powertel again had one of the best percentage gains. The Everest Brown and Babcock entry covers returns on a listed fund of hedge funds and the management company itself which are both listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.
Asset Allocation
At the end of the month the portfolio had a beta of 0.90. 58% of the portfolio was in stocks, 45% in bonds, 7% in cash, and loans totalled -21%. The remainder was in the hedge fund type and real estate investments, futures value etc.
Friday, September 08, 2006
Planning
A beautiful day here today - trying to appreciate it a little in between the things I have to do. The market has been making me nervous too as I've been confused lately about its direction. It's looking better this afternoon and I don't think I have to bail out (I'm long, though the model is short - go figure). So I can relax a little. The beginning of the Fall Semester is when we start planning for the Spring Semester. I requested to teach classes in the middle of the day most days of the week so I'm free from teaching at market closes and opens. As you can see I am getting addicted to trading :) Most profs try to concentrate all their classes into two days a week. But I have found that pretty tiring. Teaching is like acting or performing in some way. This way I spread my various activities across the week rather than concentrated. Not sure whether I've blogged about my longer term career plans? The downside of academia is immobility and I want to get out of that trap. I also am much less interested in the research part of the job than I was. In fact I enjoy more the management/adminstration aspects now! As long as something useful is getting done by doing them. I am trying to develop trading as a mobile do anywhere source of income that will give me much more flexibility. It won't neccessarily be my main activity. But I would be free to go where I like and do what I want. I am not planning on working in one job or career until I am 65 and then retiring. Why do the same thing your entire life? You only get one life to try out different things. But if I want to stay in the US I first need to get my green card and I am waiting and still waiting. The main driver is on the personal side. My girlfriend is also a potential immigrant and will be limited to visa-compatible jobs employment-wise. Total lottery where those potential jobs may be. The probability that they are close to where my current job is is infinitesimally small. Actually she was just talking about jobs in Sweden again... I won't rule it out, though am not really looking forward to another international move. Probably anyway it would be a 1-2 year position. OTOH I can travel to and live in Sweden with no problems as I have European citizenship.
On another planning front we are finally moving my mother's account from Citibank to two other financial management firms. I had high hopes from Citibank when we opened the account 4 years back and initially we got a decent guy assigned as our "relationship manager". But since then service has gone downhill. Don't think that if you have $1-2 million you will get any better service than a small investor. Many discount brokerage firms would put Citibank to shame. I was reading recently about why wealthy clients dumped managers. The number one reason was poor customer service, not poor investment performance. We just wanted no-hassle peace of mind and as long as we are making a little money we aren't concerned neccessarily about pursuing the highest returns. The last thing I wanted is for my mother to worry about what was happening with her money. One of the new providers is UBS. We will see if they live up to their image of better customer service. The other is a small local firm where she lives. Over time, we will probably place more money with the smaller firm if they are nice to us :) But we can't transfer some of our funds to their custody and don't want to sell them and therefore also need the big bank.
On another planning front we are finally moving my mother's account from Citibank to two other financial management firms. I had high hopes from Citibank when we opened the account 4 years back and initially we got a decent guy assigned as our "relationship manager". But since then service has gone downhill. Don't think that if you have $1-2 million you will get any better service than a small investor. Many discount brokerage firms would put Citibank to shame. I was reading recently about why wealthy clients dumped managers. The number one reason was poor customer service, not poor investment performance. We just wanted no-hassle peace of mind and as long as we are making a little money we aren't concerned neccessarily about pursuing the highest returns. The last thing I wanted is for my mother to worry about what was happening with her money. One of the new providers is UBS. We will see if they live up to their image of better customer service. The other is a small local firm where she lives. Over time, we will probably place more money with the smaller firm if they are nice to us :) But we can't transfer some of our funds to their custody and don't want to sell them and therefore also need the big bank.
Friday, March 24, 2006
International Barriers and Bridges
Yesterday I decided to cancel a trip to speak at a university in the southern US. They told me that as I wasn't a US citizen (but am an H1-B, green card approved but no card yet, have a SSN, and am resident for US tax purposes) they couldn't reimburse my expenses. Instead they would have to pay through my university but I would have to fill out a pile of bureaucracy delving into my tax and visa issues and then set up all kinds of bureaucractic stuff between the universities.... I just wasn't going to put up with this and even though it will cost me $130 in cancellation and change fees on the flight I decided to pull the plug. Was sorry for the guy who invited me as he is an H1-B himself. Just wasn't going to put up with more of this stuff. At a committee meeting at this university today we were presented on the barriers the US is putting in the way of foreign researchers and students and how foreign competition in the university sector is catching up and overtaking the US.... nothing really of news to me on that (unlike some of the Americans at the table...)...
Anyway, have assembled a pile of US dollars in my HSBC account and tomorrow will transfer them to Australia. The Australian Dollar has been falling sharply this month. Ostensibly because the Fed is going to raise interest rates much more than the Reserve Bank of Australia will. I have saved $A15,000 so far this month, but am down in US Dollar terms as a result. So at least make lemonade from lemons and try to buy more Aussie Dollars cheap... They will then go to paying down my margin loan in Aus. Last night I sent a fax to my broker in Aus to withdraw $A8000 from two Aussie mutual funds and put that towards margin loan reduction. The Australian All Ords index reached the magical 5000 mark for the first time. My technical analysis model is "flashing" a sell signal. So I have to act. I need to keep some money in those two funds as they are closed to new investors like all good funds eventually are. Large size in mutual funds is detrimental to performance. Good managers call a halt to the inflows at some point.
My mother and brother went to see a potential money manager yesterday. Got the info he sent on fees and performance of managers he outsources to. We know this guy from his previous job with Citibank. Could be good.... need to hear more details from them on what they discussed.
Anyway, have assembled a pile of US dollars in my HSBC account and tomorrow will transfer them to Australia. The Australian Dollar has been falling sharply this month. Ostensibly because the Fed is going to raise interest rates much more than the Reserve Bank of Australia will. I have saved $A15,000 so far this month, but am down in US Dollar terms as a result. So at least make lemonade from lemons and try to buy more Aussie Dollars cheap... They will then go to paying down my margin loan in Aus. Last night I sent a fax to my broker in Aus to withdraw $A8000 from two Aussie mutual funds and put that towards margin loan reduction. The Australian All Ords index reached the magical 5000 mark for the first time. My technical analysis model is "flashing" a sell signal. So I have to act. I need to keep some money in those two funds as they are closed to new investors like all good funds eventually are. Large size in mutual funds is detrimental to performance. Good managers call a halt to the inflows at some point.
My mother and brother went to see a potential money manager yesterday. Got the info he sent on fees and performance of managers he outsources to. We know this guy from his previous job with Citibank. Could be good.... need to hear more details from them on what they discussed.
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