October 4, 2012

Today in class we had to work on our car opportunity cost project. We had already finished most of it, but we still had to get the insurance cost. So we searched for a lot and eventually settled for Geico insurance. Using their official website we found out that it would cost $648 every year and $3,240 for five years. Before they found out, we had to input our personal data, however, so we basically made things up and just got the price. I think now the only thing we really have left to do is make a powerpoint so that we can present it to the class on Wednesday.

This weekend I didn't leave the house to work on my art project so I didn't spend any money. I still have to find out what my phone bill is and I still have to add in more groceries to my spendings.

October 2, 2012

Today, for our project, we found that the cost of an oil and filter change is around $27, so for five years it would be about $404.50. We used this website to get our information. We had a bit of trouble with this because there were so many options depending on the type of engine; for example, it would cost double the usual amount if your car used synthetic oil. Since our knowledge on cars is very limited we weren't sure what to choose, so we picked the regular oil change after searching it some more. At first we thought that the oil and filter changes would be included in the warranty for the car because that's what Tamara's mom had said, but when we looked at the Ford website it said it didn't, so the oil and filter changes for both the used and new cars are the same. Mr. Hallam told us that one of his friends, Gerald, leases cars just because he doesn't want to pay for the oil and filter changes. This is ridiculous because you only have to change the oil and filter about three times a year which is only like $81. When we researched the average cost for leasing a Ford Taurus, which was the car we had picked, it was about $6000 dollars per year. After five years it would accumulate into about $30,000. It would be smarter to just buy a car because you could buy a car for less than that. I think leasing would only be for the people who worry about their appearances and feel the need to do so by upgrading their car every couple of years, but can't afford to buy new ones.

September 28, 2012

Today in class, my group worked on the car opportunity cost project. We tried to find how much it would cost to get an oil change, but we realized that there are a lot of factors that contribute to that. Apparently the price depends on the engine type and the type of oil that goes in that. So we still have to figure that information out. We did, however find the cost of the brake change and the average insurance cost. I also found the depreciation cost for the used car using a calculator.

This is the website I used for the car depreciation. You enter the purchase price, the current vehicle age in years, and the time in years the vehicle is owned. When you click calculate, it tells you the first year depreciation and total depreciation for the low rate, average rate, and high rate of depreciation. I found it when I was googled "car depreciation calculator" for the project. When I searched some more I found that the depreciation rate is around 15% each year.

This weekend I spent money on materials I needed for art, I bought some clothes, a wallet and I bought some stationary that I needed. Together, everything was around $32.

September 26, 2012

Today in class we got ourselves in groups and we had three choices to choose from: the car opportunity cost one, the investment plan one, and the real estate one. My group decided to do the car opportunity cost project. It took us a while to find cars to compare but in the end we found a new car (a Ford Taurus) for $26,600, a used car (a 2000 Ford Taurus SES) for $3,100, and a leased car (a 2010 Ford Taurus SHO) for $499.99 every month. I also found a calculator that finds the depreciation cost at a low, high, and average rate of depreciation.

I don't think I really spend that much money, usually I pack food and I usually only buy food during my free.

September 24, 2012

Today my group and two others presented the project about college. For this project, we had to compare Ivy League universities with normal universities to see if the price was worth it. We concluded that you could make more money if you went to a normal university and invested the tuition difference between that university and an Ivy League. My group compared four universities: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ivy League) versus the University of Massachusetts Lowell (state university). The price of MIT for all four years would be $228,040 while the price of the University of Massachusetts Lowell would be $88,068. The difference between these is $139,972 and if you invested this in passive/index funds, updated your portfolio every year, and kept your bond percentage the same as your age, you could make millions of dollars in the long run. The mistake my group made was only deducting the state income tax and not the federal tax, so our net income was quite inaccurate; therefore, our data for what you would be left with if you invested was wrong. Other than that, I think we were accurate.

When I talked to my father, he said that if my sisters or I were ever accepted to an Ivy League school he would not think twice about sending us. He said that because it would never be a problem for my parents to pay the tuition fees and he thinks the connections that you get from attending a top-tier university are worth it.  He does believe, however, that you can be successful with a more mediocre education because it depends on how motivated and driven you are. We discussed people who even dropped out of Ivy Leagues like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg who managed to become extremely successful. My dad thinks they are just outliers though, those are very rare cases. I think the reason why he would want us to go to Ivy Leagues might also be because he would want to live his dream through us. When he was younger, he really wanted to go to MIT but since he lived in communist Poland, his choices were very limited, so he ended up going to an obscure German university. However, he still managed to become quite successful, so I still don't think going to an Ivy League is worth it.

This past weekend I barely spent any money even though it was a long weekend. I literally only spent $10 and that was because I had no money on my ezlink card and needed to top it up to take the bus and MRT. The reason I didn't spend very much money was because on Thursday I stayed at home to do my homework, on Friday I went to my friend's birthday party and I didn't have to pay for anything, on Saturday my friend invited me to the Maroon 5 concert and she paid for everything, and on Sunday I stayed home and did homework.

September 18, 2012

Today in class we watched presentations about the opportunity costs of universities. One group actually did quite well, one of the members, Tanya, repeated everything to make sure it was all clear. They also had everything organized in tables to make it easy to understand. The one thing wrong was that one of the tables wasn't the same as the others because the universities were switched. Another group put too much information on the slides, instead of bullet points, there were paragraphs. So it was pretty hard to read.

During the long weekend I didn't spend any money because I went to a birthday party and my friend paid for that. Then the next day I went to the Maroon 5 concert because my friend invited me and I didn't have to pay for that. The rest of the time I just did homework.

September 14, 2012

In class we talked about this article. It talked about Zurich International and Friends Provident and how you shouldn't invest with them. They sell investment products combined with insurance products which is apparently two things you should never combine. Many of the salespeople also don't understand what they're selling, so you really shouldn't trust them. With many of these companies you also sign a contract with them to stay for many years, and if you want to leave you lose lots of money. You also spend a lot of money on the high fees the company makes you pay. In the comments section of the blog post there were lots of stories about people who had bad experiences with this company or others like it.

Once again, this weekend I spent less than $30 so I am very proud of that. I spent it on food and a birthday present for a friend. I'm actually pretty proud of myself because I thought that I would've spent more on weekends.