Personal Finance January 7th by Willow

 Today was another really productive day, and we got a lot done. We started out the day with the presentations we hadn't finished yesterday. The presentations were on mortgages, which was presented by Alex, and on federal taxes, which was presented by me. Both presentations were very informative, and I feel like I have a lot more knowledge about both topics. Dr. Ott also helped some of the more nuanced concepts we were unable to present on, such as the different tax schedule forms. 

Once we finished the presentations, we watched the film The Big Short to learn a bit more about the markets and Wall Street. The film is about a group of investors discovering that the US mortgage market is a bubble and the subsequent crash of that market which caused the 2008 financial crisis. There were a lot of financial terms that I didn't understand, but it definitely helped and allowed me to gain a better understanding of what happened to the market at that time. 

After the movie and a break for lunch, we came back to discuss the chapters of the books we read. Both of the chapters were about spending money, and on how to do so responsibly. Both books have consistently given great advice on how to be financially responsible, and out of the two I think prefer Why Didn't They Teach Me This in School. I like it more because the principles are very concise, but Your Money or Your life is also very good. In our discussion, we talked about creating a monthly budget, and now I'm planning on doing so with my savings. 

After our seminars, we then went over the life game which we've been working on. It was mainly on how to go plug numbers into the spreadsheet and use the formulas, and it's been very useful. I am going to be in college next semester after all, so it will be very nice to at least have an estimate of what everything will cost me. It's definitely daunting looking into the future and estimating costs, but it also provides a bit of a sense of security, and also gives a little time to prepare. 

Today has been a very productive day, and I'm looking forward to learning more tomorrow.

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