Category Archives: Personal Finance

In this week’s personal finance essay I will be writing about five mistakes that young married couples make. Also by no means am I an expert on this, I am not married or getting married anytime soon, so this essay is based on what I have noticed about young married couples.

Mistake 1#

The first mistake I will be writing about is having an expensive wedding. The reason why this is a mistake is because most young, going to be married couples don’t have a lot of money. So having a big wedding is usually very draining to a young couple’s finances, also because a big wedding is going to be more costly, it is more stressful to host. Early on stress is not exactly healthy or good for a marriage.

Mistake 2#

The second mistake is buying an expensive wedding or engagement ring. Like I mentioned above, young couples usually don’t have a lot of money, so buying an expensive and extra fancy ring, is not exactly great for your finances, especially if you don’t have a lot of money, or have just entered the workforce.

Mistake 3#

The third mistake is rushing for marriage. A lot of young couples just want to get married right away, even though they have been dating for less than a year. This is a terrible idea, because if you want a successful and happy marriage, you and your partner have to really get to know each other, to determine if you both want to live with each other for the rest of your lives. Also being hasty for marriage isn’t great for your finances, and financial problems within a couple is not exactly healthy for a marriage. My parents were dating for seven years before they got married, and they have a pretty happy marriage.

Mistake 4#

The fourth mistake is having an expensive honeymoon. Often a newly wed couple spends way too much money on their honeymoon, which is a mistake for a few reasons. The first is the fact that a newly wed couple most likely spent a lot of money on their wedding, which already leaves them financially tight, and having an expensive honeymoon makes that worse. 

Mistake 5#

The fifth and final mistake I will be writing about is getting a divorce. Getting a divorce is a last resort, and can be prevented. A divorce is a huge financial strain, it is also very damaging especially if you have children(children can be affected very negatively if their parents split). 

There are probably more mistakes that a young married couple can make, but I felt that these five were the most important.

Inflation is a term to refer to the increase in the cost of things, and the lowering of the purchasing power of a currency or money. In this week’s personal finance essay I will be writing about how inflation affects me.

Inflation does not affect me that much, yet, because I am not an adult yet, or have bought costly items such as a car or house, or sold something. But that does not mean I notice it in my daily life. For example two years ago when I bought a certain type of candy, the cost of the candy was fifty cents per piece, now the exact same candy costs almost a dollar. Another example of something that I noticed has been affected by inflation is gas prices. I don’t own a car or drive yet, but I do notice the gas price. When I was ten years old the average gas price was in the ninety and low one hundred cents range per liter, but in a span of four years it has gone higher, in certain cities in my area the gas price was almost two dollars. But thanks to the Covid 19 Pandemic, the gas price has gotten much lower, actually at a certain point the gas price was almost seventy cents in my area, but that’s most likely because the demand for gas is low because almost everyone was staying at home.

Getting back on topic, yes I do notice inflation, but how does it affect me? The way that inflation affects me is by the cost of small items. Every single year I see a change in the cost of a particular item. Another way it affects me is how it affects my parents, which of course affects me. Inflation affects many people today. This is how it affects me.

In this personal finance essay I will be writing about, “how I would invest 2,000 dollars.”

I have never invested in anything before, so I would like to go about investing a little slowly, just because of my lack of experience. I would also not be putting all that money(2000 dollars), into one particular investment, and I would study the market carefully to be wary of scams such as Ponzi schemes. 

Like I wrote above, I have no experience whatsoever with investing, but I do know people who do invest, so I will base my investment choses to be somewhat similar to people that I know who have experience with investing. But I do know that I would like to invest in physical gold or silver(just to have a relatively steady assist), also I would invest when a stock is at its low end cost, this is somewhat difficult to determine though. I am not sure exactly on what other kinds of investments I would be making with 2000 dollars because the market is always changing, and when I do start investing the market most likely would be much different than it is today. So who knows what options will be out there. 

Conclusion

This is how I would invest 2000 dollars.

In this week’s personal finance essay, I will be writing about my top five investing tips that I would pass on to a younger person.

The Tips

Tip 1: the first tip I would pass on is, always research the stock or bond before investing in it. Researching a stock for example gives you insight on how the stock has done over the years, what its current price, and if it’s at it’s high point or low point. All of these things you should consider before investing in a stock or bond.

Tip 2: my second tip I would pass on is, never put all your money in one stock or bond company, this especially goes for buying stocks in my opinion, if you put a lot of your money into a stock you may lose a lot or all your money if you put a large sum of money into a stock or bond.

Tip 3: my third tip I would pass on is, don’t be terribly shocked if you lose your money on a stock if it goes down in value or if a bond goes down in value, this happens a lot(I know many people who have lost money when the value of a stock or bond goes down). So if this does happen don’t give up, instead learn from that investing mistake, and improve on your investing skills.

Tip 4: my fourth tip I would pass on is, don’t invest in only one company! There are a few reasons for this one, say if the company that you only invested in went really down in value, you would be losing money! But if you had invested in three companies, and say that two of the companies gained in value, but the third went down in value, you won’t be losing as much money as you would have if you only invested in one company, because you gained money.

Tip 5: my fifth tip I would pass on is, please consider investing in precious medals, such as silver or gold. There are some reasons for this; these reasons are: precious metals usually keep their value for a while(this is because they are valuable), this is especially noticed if you actually invested in the physical metal. Another reason is the fact that precious metals are very good in a time when your country is experiencing high inflation, because they can hold up with their value for a while.

Conclusion

These are the five investing tips I would pass on to a younger person. 

In this week’s essay I will be writing how my life plans have changed while taking the RPC Personal Finance.

My life plans did change while taking this course; I am not finished with this course yet, but I have noticed small changes to my life plans. For example; I have always had plans for my future such as what career I want to have, etc, but I never knew exactly how to take action, until this course taught me how to properly set a goal. Goal setting has helped me have an idea of how reasonable the career choice or goal is. Which in turn has made it easier for me to take action.

Another example of how my life plans have changed in the last six months thanks to the RPC Personal Finance course, is my plan on University. Before the personal finance course I didn’t really have an idea on the expenses of the University. But ever since I have been taking the course I have become more aware of the expense of University, which in turn made me think, is “university really worth it?” I answered that question with a yes, because I want to get into science.

Conclusion

This is my essay on how my life plans have changed in the last six months, thanks to the RPC Personal Finance course.

In this week’s essay I will be writing about my “list” of the university majors I would consider taking if I chose to go to university.

The List

I wouldn’t call my “list” a list, I only have one major I am interested in, Geology. Of course I know that Geology requires certain courses before I take the actual course such as biology, physics, chemistry, and some math. But I wouldn’t be taking those courses in College if I take clep tests on those subjects, to collect credit.

The reason why I chose Geology out of all the other university majors is because I always knew that if I did go to university I would take a major in science. I also knew I would never get a major in something like humanities, just because the job options for that major is limited.

The final reason why I chose Geology, is the fact that mining is probably going to be important throughout history; most things are made out of mined minerals or made from tools made from mined minerals, after all. So I believe that Geology will be a relatively secure job for the long run.

Conclusion

This is my “list” of the university majors that I consider.

In this short report I will be giving my personal reflection on the Personal Finance course, so far.

What parts of the course have been my favorite so far? My favorite parts of this course are the entrepreneur spotlights, another part that I liked a lot was the section on starting a business.

What parts of the course need revision or improvement? I am not sure how to answer this question. The course itself was pretty well made, I did notice that some videos were slow to load but the instructor usually had a small note that said that it would. Maybe just that.

What has the course not covered yet that I am looking forward to the most? I am not sure, I don’t go through all my lessons to see what I will be learning, I prefer to be surprised.

Well that is my personal reflection on the personal finance course.

In this week’s essay I will be writing about an entrepreneur and inventor: Madam C.J Walker or Sarah Breedlove(born December 23rd, 1867, died May 25th, 1919). What I will be getting into in this essay is: the nature of her business, how she got into that kind of work, and what I admire in this entrepreneur.

The Nature of Her Business

The nature of Walker’s business was cosmetics and hair care products for African american women. The hair care products that she sold were hair products that treated and repaired hair loss, dandruff, and other ailments of the hair(a lot of african american woman during that time struggled with their hair health because of a lack of products for them), also she sold a product that helped with hair growth.

How Did She Get Into That Kind of Work

Before becoming an entrepreneur Walker worked as a  laundress in St Louis Missouri, and barely earned any money. She had never really had a formal education until she was older, when she began going to school as much as she could with her daughter, but she was determined to give her daughter a better life(her husband had passed away when she was twenty and her daughter was two), and education. 

Like many african american women around that time she suffered from dandruff, baldness, and other scalp ailments, caused by skin disorders and the exposure of harsh products to clean the hair and clothes that she washed for a living. Because of her hair problems she experimented with both homemade and store bought hair care treatments to improve her hair health. In 1905 she was hired as a commission agent by a successful african american entrepreneur, Annie Turnbo Malone, who sold hair products. She had to move to Denver Colorado because of her new job. While she was working at her new job her husband(she had remarried), helped her create ads for a hair treatment product for African Americans that she was perfecting.

In 1907 she and her husband traveled around the South of the US promoting her products. By 1908 Walker had opened a factory and a beauty school, and her business began to take off. 

What I Admire About Her

The things that I admire about this entrepreneur are: that she got inspired by her bad hair health into creating something that helped other women that were having similar problems, she proved like quite a few other entrepreneurs again that not having a good education cannot limit you if you work hard, and the final thing that I admire about her is the fact that she is self made millionaire and inventor.

Conclusion

In this week’s essay I wrote about a self made millionaire, Madam C.J Walker.

Today I interviewed two people who went to university(here in Canada university is far more common to attend than Canada), these two people are my parents. I was required to interview someone who graduated five years ago, but because I don’t know anyone who has graduated university recently I have to work with my parents. (Note the info I received is not really accurate to today’s university costs and financial matters).

The questions I asked my parents are:

Question 1: How much did they spend each semester on books?

Question 2: What was the biggest unexpected financial burden they faced in university.

Question 3: If they could start university all over again, how could they have saved money by doing things differently.

There Answers

My Mom’s answers:

Question 1: my Mom said that she spent approximately four hundred and fifty to five hundred dollars Canadian, on books total, per semester.

Question 2: my Mom said, the cost of groceries and eating out, were the most unexpected costs.

Question 3: not going to university at all, but instead going to a Hotel Management school in Europe.

My Dad’s answers:

Question 1: my Dad said that he spent approximately four hundred dollars Canadian on books total, per semester.

Question 2: not having complete control and certainty over summer income.

Question 3: socializing less, studying something more difficult, not playing any varsity sports in the first year, and doing a trade before entering into university.

Conclusion

These are the questions and answers on financial costs of university that I received from my parents.

In this week’s essay I will be writing about my plan for two to four years after my highschool graduation. I am only in 8th and 9th grade at the moment, but I do have an idea of what I would like to do after I finish High School. I plan on graduating in three to four years, at eighteen or nineteen years old, around this time I will hopefully have finished getting a bachelor degree by testing out of college, or in other words have taken multiple clep tests, and have collected enough credit to get a bachelor degree, which will save me a lot of time and money.

Would I Like to Go to College or University?

The answer to this question is yes. The career path that I want to follow is Geology, which requires a College or University degree, I believe that College or University is practical if you want to be a lawyer, doctor, some type of scientist(which I want to be), or engineer, there are more examples of degrees that you should go to college or university for. But if I did not want to be a Geologist and choose a career in writing instead, I would not go to college and university but instead acquire a bachelor degree in writing by testing out of college with clep.

The Rest of My Plan

College and University are a very important part of my plan two to four years after graduation, but there are other things I have in my plan during that time. The other things I would like to be doing during these two to four years are, one work at a part time job with my Dad or some other successful business man or woman during the school year, during the summer break I would like to work as a lifeguard part time(I am going to start taking lifeguarding courses), and most of all I would like to be pretty financially stable and fully free from my parents financially, this is why I plan on working throughout the year.

Conclusion

This is my essay on my plan for two to four years after highschool graduation.