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What Is an Index Fund? Index funds are considered to be passively managed. The manager of an index fund tries to mimic the returns of the index it follows by purchasing all (or almost all) of the holdings in the index. Hundreds of market indexes can be invested in via mutual funds and exchange-traded funds. What Is an Actively Managed Fund? The portfolio manager of an actively managed fund tries to beat the market by picking and choosing investments....

What’s the best way to avoid the pitfall of giving a lame interview answer, but still make a viable point about your suitability for jobs requiring lots of interaction with people—and even for jobs that don’t? Here’s how to answer interview questions about working with other people, example answers, tips for giving the best response, and what not to say. What the Interviewer Wants to Know Companies want to know how well you work with other people, and you’ll need to say more than that you enjoy working with others, which is the standard response....

How many hours do you typically work in a week? Do you often work late nights? Do you bring work home to do over the weekend? Find out why employers are interested in exploring your work hours—and get tips for how to give a strong response. What the Interviewer Wants to Know Interview questions about how much you work can be tricky because employers ask this for a variety of reasons....

Investing may sound complicated, but getting started is easier than you’d think (yes, even for teens). In this article, parents and teenagers will learn the benefit of investing for teens, the best investments for this age group, and what accounts you can use to start investing. Why You Should Help Your Teen Start Investing Early Individuals who start investing as teens rather than waiting until later in life have an advantage over their peers, both in their potential returns and the knowledge they can gain from investing....

Examine Business Needs Whether you need an attorney to start your business depends in large part on what legal type of business you’re starting. The simpler your business, the less you’ll need an attorney. A sole proprietorship is the simplest business form. It doesn’t require that you register your business with your state, so no, you probably don’t need an attorney to start this type of business. No specific paperwork is required other than local business licenses, and even that can depend on the exact nature of your business and your area’s unique requirements....

Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas created an “exuberance indicator” that examines home price data and detects periods when home values are inflated relative to market fundamentals like demand, household wealth, and economic growth. As the chart below shows, the market has been exuberant for at least five quarters. It’s no secret that prices for homes have been soaring—in the year through September, they were up 19.5%, according to the latest data from the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index....

Application forms are overall forms used for all applicants for jobs with your company. This article discusses questions and information that can and can’t be included in an employment application form. What You Need to Know About Job Applications and Discrimination Protected Classes Many people in the U.S. have been legally designated as being protected against discrimination in employment. In other words, you may not discriminate against someone on the basis of: RaceColor (skin color/complexion)ReligionSex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity)National origin (nationality/part of the world/accent, etc....

If you’re lucky, a company may acknowledge their original receipt of your job application. But very often, a company will only contact you if they are serious about inviting you to a phone or in-person interview. Here’s information on how job interviews are scheduled, different types of interview invitations, examples, and how to respond to the invitation. How Interviews Are Scheduled If you’ve successfully caught their attention with your initial cover letter and resume, the hiring manager will typically reach out through email or phone to set up an interview time....

Why Send a Thank-You Letter The first reason to send a thank-you letter is that it’s just plain, good manners. But there’s also a self-serving purpose: A thank-you note is your opportunity to get your name in front of people one last time and leave a positive impression. If you’re being interviewed or going through the job application process, thank-you letters allow you to sell yourself as a candidate. You can reference specific instances that may have come up in an interview....

Here’s a quick look at Thursday’s reports and what they tell us. Jobless Claims First-time claims for unemployment insurance dropped by 15,000 to 214,000 through the week of March 12, marking the third time in four weeks that claims have dropped, the Labor Department reported. The drop brings unemployment claims back to levels not seen since before the pandemic. It’s the fewest weekly jobless claims this year. Economists said it’s another sign of a tight labor market, where employers are competing for a smaller pool of workers....

If you’ve recently been through a nasty breakup or have a vengeful enemy, vandalism can sometimes be an unfortunate consequence of your personal life that impacts your financial one. Common acts of vandalism include keyed cars, broken windows and smashed headlights. If your vehicle has been vandalized, you may be wondering whether your insurance policy will cover the damage. What Insurance Coverage Fixes a Keyed Car? A keyed car is considered a vandalized car and vandalism is covered under the comprehensive coverage portion of your auto insurance policy....

Tax cuts have an arithmetic effect on government revenue and spending. They have an economic effect on long-term revenue and economic growth. The total impact depends on the tax rate before the cut, among other considerations. The Laffer Curve underpins supply-side economics, Reaganomics, and the Tea Party’s economic policies. What Is the Laffer Curve? The Laffer Curve is an economic theory that describes the potential impacts of tax cuts on government spending, revenue, and long-term growth....

As a business journalist, she won honors from the Los Angeles Press Club and Aerospace Writers Association for exclusive stories on the military space industry. She also initiated business coverage of the South Central areas of Los Angeles, then largely overlooked by newspapers, after the Rodney King riot. In 1994, she moved East to become an editor at Bloomberg News, where as leader of the North American equities team she oversaw coverage of such transformational financial stories as the birth of online trading and the dot-com boom....

Cecilie_Arcurs/Getty Images What Is Included in a Brand’s Valuation Before calculating your brand’s valuation, determine what the brand includes. You should consider the value of anything that consumers associate with your brand and image, such as your trademark, brand name, visual assets such as a logo or colors, unique marketing strategy, digital assets or licenses, and level of customer loyalty. Brand value is an essential tool for developing your brand and forecasting the value of your business....

How Long the Hold Will Last Most banks will put an out-of-state check on hold for at least 10 business days. It is important to remember that business days are days that the bank is open Monday through Friday. If the bank is closed for a federal or state holiday during the time of the hold, this will add additional days to the hold. The bank is required to notify you when they put a deposit on hold, and you can ask any questions about the length of time that your deposit will be put on hold....

Learn when someone might apply for a leave of absence and what might happen if one is granted. What Is a Leave of Absence? A leave of absence is time allowed away from work, generally requested by an employee to cover special circumstances occurring in the employee’s life. An unpaid leave of absence is used when the employee’s time off from work is not covered under an employer’s existing benefits such as sick leave, paid vacation, paid holidays, and paid time off....

What Is a Leveraged Inverse ETF? As the name implies, a leveraged inverse ETF combines two ETF high-risk trading strategies—leveraged ETFs and inverse ETFs. It’s best to tackle each concept separately to understand how they work together. Leveraged ETFs Whereas a traditional ETF seeks to replicate the performance of an index, a leveraged ETF seeks to beat an index by earning multiples on the index’s performance. For example, the ProShares Ultra S&P500 (SSO) tries to double the earnings of the S&P....

One way to do so is with clever LinkedIn formatting tricks. Of course, it is not a substitute for the actual content on your profile page, but strategic use of bold, italics, underlining, bullets, and emojis can make phrases pop and text easier to read. How To Format LinkedIn Text Recruiters, potential employers, or prospective business partners don’t have time to read through an entire LinkedIn page. When someone views your LinkedIn profile via the mobile app—which many do—they only see titles, headlines, and company names followed by a line of text....

For management-related resumes, you may include your management philosophy, examples of accomplishments, and quotes from others regarding your management skills, in addition to your work history and other relevant information. Below, you’ll find detailed information on skills to highlight on your resume, along with management resume examples for a variety of management jobs (including customer service, finance, human resources, operations, technical, and general management positions). There are also a few useful tips to help you craft a successful resume....

Prior to joining The Balance, Marisa was Compliance Manager at Wise Bread. There, she leveraged her international compliance team and implemented around-the-clock monitoring of the site. She streamlined compliance by creating new and efficient auditing procedures, as well as processes for new card and banking updates. In recognition of her efforts, Marisa was invited to speak to BrandVerity’s publishers about the importance of compliance. Marisa joined The Balance in 2020 to oversee all marketing compliance and content integrity initiatives....