There are many big-time philanthropists in the U.S., but the biggest is none other than Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft. He and his wife, Melinda, started the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which, among other things, spends approximately $800 million a year on medical research. In January 2010, the foundation pledged $10 billion towards vaccine research over the next ten years in an effort to vaccinate 90% of the un-vaccinated children in Third World countries. Melinda Gates estimates that the research will help save 8 million children’s lives over the next decade. The $10 billion dollars is a substantial increase over the $4.5 billion (approximately) that the charity allocated towards vaccine research in the previous decade.
Archive for the ‘Question of the Day’ Category
Who is the United States’ biggest philanthropist?
Wednesday, July 14th, 2010Can a nonprofit go out of business?
Friday, June 18th, 2010Yes! A nonprofit can “go out of business,” so to speak. There are all sorts of reasons why an organization would shut down. The most common reason is lack of funding. Almost all nonprofits rely on donors and foundations to cover the costs of staff salaries and all other overhead expenses. If and when funding sources dry up, many nonprofits have no option but to close their doors. Additionally, some nonprofits are actually formed with the intention of “going out of business” at a certain point – once their mission has been accomplished and they no longer need to exist.
How can you look at your credit score?
Friday, June 18th, 2010Checking your credit score is a lot simpler than you may think — in fact, everyone in America is entitled to one free credit report each year from all of the three credit reporting agencies. You can request them online at the fishy-sounding but totally legit and official www.annualcreditreport.com.
You can also buy your credit report, for a nominal fee, directly from each one of these agencies. Make sure you type in the correct website address, because fake websites have similar names and will try to trick you into giving away personal information or signing up for services you don’t want or need.
How do they choose who rings the bell at the NYSE/NASDAQ?
Friday, June 18th, 2010The first way to answer this question is to address the “they.” The New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ are two separate entities, though both are stock markets and both are headquartered in New York City. On both exchanges, “opening” and “closing” bells are rung to signal the beginning and end of each trading day. The trading day starts at 9:30am EST and ends at 4:00pm EST.
The logic of who gets to ring these bells is a more interesting question. It’s basically pure public relations and promotional play to ring the opening or closing bell of the NYSE or NASDAQ. Lebron James might stop by to ring the bell because he is in New York playing with the Knicks, or it could be the CEO of Electronic Arts because his company is about to release the latest version of Rock Band. On some days, no one is scheduled to ring the opening or closing bells, and officials from the exchanges have to do the job themselves. Generally speaking, companies and individuals request to ring the bell and the individual exchanges choose who they will allow to do so.
It’s important to remember, though, that ringing the bell to start or end the trading day is a ceremony and has significance. You wouldn’t want to be remembered as the person who rang in the worst trading day of the year. On the other hand, if your company rings the bell on the opening or closing of the best trading day ever, it’s a victory for pretty much everyone!
Do I need to buy a hybrid to drive green?
Friday, June 18th, 2010Hybrids are pretty cool, but the most powerful tool for eco-friendly driving is YOU. Changing the way you drive can help keep the environment clean and save you money no matter what kind of car you drive. “Hypermilers” take this to the extreme and claim they can get up to 100 miles per gallon from standard model cars by strictly following certain guidelines and techniques. Here are a few simple things you can do that will have an immediate impact on your gas bill and your carbon footprint:
- Chill out! Driving aggressively is really inefficient. Accelerate slowly and evenly and try to keep your speed as constant as possible – you burn more gas when you accelerate.
- Slow down! Driving slower burns less gas. The difference between going 75 mph and 55 mph on the highway is HUGE in miles per gallon… and also in money for speeding tickets!
- Take care of your car. Regular maintenance and keeping your tires at the manufacturer’s recommended pressure can keep your mpg (that’s miles of driving per gallon of gas) at its highest level.
- Cruise… Using cruise control on the highway can keep you from creeping up to those higher, less efficient speeds, and it prevents all that carbon-spewing stop-and-go driving.
You can definitely help the environment with your money – buying green products, investing in a socially responsible manner, or giving to an Environment Cause – but you can also do a lot just by modifying your behavior. Remember, efficiency is good for the environment and your bottom line!
Why would my bank let me spend money I don’t have?
Friday, June 18th, 2010Whenever you write a check or use your debit card, the money you use is taken out of your checking account. When the money you owe exceeds the amount of money you have available in checking, the extra money is called overdraft. Many banks will allow you to spend more than you have (at least temporarily) and charge you a fee each time you do. But why does overdraft even exist? Shouldn’t your bank just make it impossible for you to get credit for money you don’t have?
Normally, when you write a check for more money than your checking account contains, the check will “bounce” when someone tries to cash it, and your bank will charge you a fee. But some banks won’t fine you for bouncing a check if you use a service called overdraft protection. With overdraft protection, any overdraft you generate becomes a kind of instant loan – the bank lets you have the money, but you have to pay it back with interest. Interest on overdraft tends to be incredibly high, but as long as you pay it back quickly, it’s usually still cheaper than the fine you’d pay for bouncing a check. Your bank still profits from the interest, and it can also charge you a fee just to get overdraft protection in the first place.
It’s worth noting that you don’t have to have overdraft protection if you don’t want it; for example, if you turn off overdraft protection on your debit card, when you don’t have enough money to pay for something, the transaction simply won’t go through. In some cases it doesn’t make sense to have your bank let you go over the limit just so it can charge you, but when it’s used intelligently, overdraft protection can be worthwhile both for you and your bank – you save money, and your bank makes money.
So you want your name on the side of that building, huh?
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010People have all sorts of motivations for giving money to charitable causes – sometimes it’s as simple as wanting to announce to the world that you supported a new hospital wing by having your name on that building. In order for a building to sport your name, it usually requires a charitable gift in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions. Of course, every organization has their own policies when it comes to naming stuff after big donors (as do the donors themselves!) – there are no hard and fast rules. But donors giving at that level are often heavily involved with the organization, for example serving on the board of directors, or at least having frequent fancy lunches with the CEO or Executive Director of the organization.
What’s the difference between checking and savings?
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010You probably see the words “checking” and “savings” most often when you’re hitting the ATM. Although both checking and savings are bank accounts that hold money you’ve deposited, when people withdraw money, they almost always take it from checking. Why?
Generally, a checking account is designed to hold spending money – money that you don’t want to carry around with you or stash under your mattress, but that you want within reach when you need to pay for your expenses. A savings account, as the name suggests, is designed for money that you want to save for later use. Because of this distinction, there are important differences between the two types of accounts.
When people or corporations cash checks you’ve written them, that money usually comes out of your checking account. You can withdraw money from either account, but people usually want to take the money from checking if they can. The logic behind this decision is that savings accounts generate interest, while checking accounts don’t necessarily (or if they do, there are usually a ton of conditions attached). The more money you leave in your savings account, the more you get paid in interest, so it makes sense not to take out any of that money unless you absolutely have to.
Checking accounts are created under the assumption that the amount of money they contain will fluctuate, while savings accounts are meant for money that you expect will stay with your bank for a while. Checking and savings differ from each other in accordance with their designated purposes, but they’re meant to complement one another.
You can postpone your taxes?
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010In certain situations, you can actually put off paying your taxes until later – sometimes many years later – but methods of doing so are pretty complicated. Income whose taxes you can pay later is called tax-deferred, and the most common type of tax-deferred income is the money you put into a retirement plan.
Most retirement plans (IRAs, 401(k)s, Keogh Plans, and so on) allow you to make elective deferrals up to a certain amount. What does this mean? Under a retirement plan, you set aside a portion of your income every year and put it into a retirement account for use – you guessed it – after you retire. Think of it this way: as far as the IRS is concerned, the money you put into a retirement account essentially doesn’t exist until you withdraw it, which means the IRS isn’t going to tax that money until you withdraw it.
But you still have to pay the taxes eventually, right? Why not just pay them now and get it over with? The answer has to do with tax brackets. By the time you actually start using the money in your retirement account, your income may be lower. And if you’re in a lower income tax bracket when you withdraw the money, you’ll pay less in income taxes on that money than you would if you paid up when you originally earned it all those years ago. So in some cases, putting off payment can actually pay off.