How To Save Money.

Taxes - How Does The Government Spend Money?

Many people are always curious to where our tax dollars go. The chart above shows that most of our tax dollars are equally distributed among Human Resources, the military, and general government spendings. The figures are federal funds, which do not include trust funds — such as Social Security — that are raised and spent separately from income taxes. What you pay (or don’t pay) by April 17, 2007, goes to the federal funds portion of the budget. The government practice of combining trust and federal funds began during the Vietnam War, thus making the human needs portion of the budget seem larger and the military portion smaller. For more can be found in the following site. By looking at these charts I can tell that most of teh money goes towards the war as shown on the following graph.

What happens to property tax? Property tax finances and the services for our local governmentgoes to support public schools, fire and police protection, roads, health programs, parks, city streets, sewer systems, garbage disposal, public libraries, and many other local services. The following chart shows a briefing of the distribution among the following facilities:

Savings and Debt.

After reading the article I was shocked to see that most of the American population is in dept due to high interest rates and fees charged on credit cards and loans. Inflation has also been a big problem and factor that leads people into dept. Loans are a great way to help you pay back money, but if your late in paying them back the interest rate goes up, which is not so swell. I feel really bad for the Moellering family and families like them because they only make a certain amount yearly and they cannot compensate to pay back all the billls ranging from credit card debt which came out to $22,228. While loans were balance of $68,574, at 8 percent interest. People get into dept easily because they get a lot of credit cards, take out many laons especially when starting a business or buying a house. Finance charges are dangerous because they add extra money to the amount of credit you use and builds up resulting in a larger amount to pay back.

Americans don't save money anymore because it's so easy to use credit cards and due to inflation is harder to save money. When people use credit cards its fater to spend money and people can't save money because they have to pay it back with interest rates. People are just always buying what they want and they don't really look at the price tag when they swipe their credit cards or take out big sums of loans.

Compared to other countries The United States has the lowest persoanl savings rate dropping to zero percent compared to other countries. In France, the savings rate was 11.6%. Germany's rate was a robust 10.6%. Japan clocked in at 6.7%. Many say due to the Baby Boom back in 1920's the savings rate has gone down.

Critique of GDP Podcast

The group's podcast I chose to critique is Roshanjit and Franchesca's Podcast.

After viewing their podcast I was able to learn an efficient amount of information about Gross Domestic Product without straining my ears. The content is strong and answers all required questions that was asked. There were some points during the podcast that the information being said was a bit quick, but the speed remained constant and improved along the way.
Right from the beginning the recording was clear and loud. Their lively vocals caught my attention and helped me stay focused without losing me through the lesson.
Unlike other podcasts I have heard they weren't monotone or too quiet, but clear. The images were set up accurately with what was being said and they did their part on contributing to match the verbal content. I liked the way they setup the podcast in a "classroom" setting and it was indeed interesting and creative. I did learn alot about trade deficit value and the formula for gross domestic product. I would recommend others to view the podcast if they needed help to review the GDP.
The only criticism I can offer them is to slow down a bit at some points, but their pace was perfect. Also, more pictures could have been placed in the podcast to engage the reader more.
Overall, they both did a very good job nonetheless.

US Trade Deficit: getting better?

Trade deficit is the negative balance of trade, or in other words known as the trade gap. The balance of trade is sometimes divided into a goods and a services balance. It is the ultimate opposite of trade surplus. The article written by the New York Times is discussing the trade deficit issue and money value in the United States. The American companies are making more money overseas and this is increasing the value of the American dollar. Some of the stores are spread out more across other countries than it is in the US such as McDonalds, KFC and other fast food chain restaurants. The cost of oil has increased as well. The value of the dollar can either break or make the US. Currently the European Euro has more worth than the current dollar, which is causing some problems, but work is being done to balance it out. Since most of our products are highly wanted in other countries our GDP increases with is as well.

Taxes - How Does The Government Get Money?

Americans pay alot of taxes for many things. Majority of the tax money goes to the federal government who uses it to fund parks, homeless shelters, wars and other nessecities. There are many types of taxes Americans pay without really realizing it such as :Accounts Receivable Tax, Building Permit Tax, Capital Gains Tax, CDL license Tax, Cigarette Tax, Corporate Income Tax, Court Fines (indirect taxes), Dog License Tax, Federal Income Tax, Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA), Fishing License Tax, Food License Tax, Fuel permit tax, Gasoline Tax (42 cents per gallon) are just to name a few. The main types of taxes that Americans pay are income tax, payroll tax, sales tax, tax on tariff and trade. The IRS controls and maintains the taxes we pay. In New York the sales tax is 8.25%.
The federal government gets money from the taxes taken off from our checks during Pay day. As sad as it is staring at your paycheck with a $20 deductable tax cut, the money goes to helping the country. The state government also gets money from deductions on checks of employed people. The money collected by the state goes for the same purposes as the federal government. The state government uses the money for their own particular state. Most of the tax money cut from our paychecks go to the senior citizens and help fund housing for them. Now it'sa problem due to the Baby Boom back in the 1920's. There are a lot more senior citizens today and funding is becoming an issue. One thing that has changed over the years regarding taxes is that there is no more tax on clothes and shoes under $100. There are also tax free weeks once or twice a year which amny Americans enjoy, since tax can sometimes be a real issue.

Some examples of tax in effect is when you purchase a book. The book is originally priced $8.00, but due to the taxes we have to pay the book in teh end turns out to be around $8.40.

Another example would be purchasing oil, toys, anything imported which is not clothing, will all have tax imposed on them.

Student Loans - Beware

College is just around the corner and alot of student loans are being taken out in order to attend college. One of the biggest fears of many college freshman is dept. Interest rates are going up as well. After reading ‘Top Chef’ Dreams Crushed by Student Loan Debt I realized that you should really think before you take action.
I believe a lot of the culinary school students took out such large student loans because they were passionate about cooking as an occupation. A lot of people go great lengths to achieve what they want and to be successful and to be the best you have to attend the best schools. I especially think that since becoming a chef isn't such a popular major it's more expensive since only a few select schools offer it. I think student loans is a very convenient way of paying back money when you can't afford it at the moment. It gives the person an oppurtunity to go to college without paying much attention to the price rather the education the school has to offer. I'm actually taking out $3,500 in student loans for the whole year because most of my tuition was covered from scholarships and grants.

Critique of Federal Reserve Podcast.

I will evaluate Roshanjit and Franchesca's Federal Reserve Podcast.

Compound Interest and the rule of 72

Today we learned about...

Insider Trading Scandal - What Happened?

On Thursday, March 1st a large insider trading network was broken up on Wall Street. It took everyone by shock that thirteen people were involved in this insider trading and made millions of dollars off of it. The men had gained 8 million dollars illegally as profit from the securityindustry. Eight of the men were arrested while four pleaded guilty.

"Insider trading" is a term that most investors have heard and usually associate with illegal conduct. But the term actually includes both legal and illegal conduct. The legal version is when corporate insiders—officers, directors, and employees—buy and sell stock in their own companies. Illegal insider trading refers generally to buying or selling a security without the company's consent and making a profit out of it. The traders would know information ahead of time and they would sell the information in exchange of millions of dollars.

Dow down 416 pts! - Why?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average went down 416 points on Tuesday because in China the market went down 9%. It interuppted the equilibrium that everyone was in and effected my stocks as well. This disaster brought 416 pts on the Jones Dow making many companies loose millions of dollars. A lot of people sold most of their stocks causing it to decline. The China and U.S are close trading partners and the decrease in China affected the U.S as well. It wasn't as bad as the other famous declines such as the stock market crash during the Great Depression, when all of America fell into depth. During this time, my stocks are doing pretty well because I didn't buy much to begin with, but after everything becomes normal again I might buy more stocks.

Opportunity Costs

Opportunity cost is the cost we pay when we give up something to get something else. Many other ways we give up something to gain a similar profit.

Some examples of oppurtunity costs would be like if you have a job and you give up work to work in another firm to help your family out, ending up making the same amount of money. Or you could just sleep in. Opportunity cost is the most desirable thing given up not the aggregate of the things we gave up.

Types of Economic Systems.

The following as defined by :


-Traditional Economies: A traditional economic system is one in which people's economic roles are the same as those of their parents and grandparents. It's kind of a family economic system which ancestors have installed and future generations carry on, like planting and plowing fields.

-Centrally Planned (Command) Economy: In a command economic system, the main decision maker is the government. The government decides what goods and services are to be produced. They also sell the goods and services.

-Market Economy: A market economic system is one in which a nation's economic decisions are the result of individual decisions by buyers and sellers in the marketplace. People risk the money that they have saved or borrowed in the hope that they will be successful.

-Mixed Economy: Are made up of with some free enterprise and some government ownership. It is usually defined as an economy that contains both private owned and state owned enterprises. Combines socialism and capitalism.

The difference between communism and socialism is that communism is when the government owns and operates almost all of the nation's means of production. While in socialism the government owns and operates many of the nation's major industries-such as banks, airlines, railroads, and power plants-but allows individuals to own other businesses, including stores, farms, and factories.

Stock Market Game - 1 - Initial Investment Strategy

My strategies for the stock market game is to make alot of money and not spend all of it at the same time. The first stocks I want to buy is the HOTT stock which is the Hot Topic stock because I work there and it would be interesting to see the flow. I am considering to buy quite a few stocks that are big right now such as Apple, Google and Pepsi. I might consider buying a mutual fund as well. It's kind of like gambling and I'm willing to take risks, maybe I'll get something positive out of it.Penny stocks seem interesting and I might consider it. One of the reasons I want to win and earn the highest pecentage is because I want to get that 100 at the end of the term added to my grade, which will also bring up my average. This seems like an exciting game :)