Finance Your Money

This week, we learned about how to financing your money. 

some methods to finance your money:

• Installment plan
• layaway (ask for store to keep your stuff you want to buy, and pay certain amount of money in every month/year etc.)
• Secured and unsecured loans. 

Some sources of financing are:

• retail stores
• banks and credit unions
• finance companies
• pawn shops
• payday loans (evil)
• title loans (evil)
• private lenders

Some types of credit are:

• open-end credit
• closed-end credit
• service credit
• revolving credit
• secured loans
• unsecured loans

There are many methods, sources of financing, and types of credit, but each one of them has some pros and cons. Therefore, it is important to have researches on them before you use them, and pick right method, source and type for you.

We also learned about a credit card. We all know about a credit card but we don't know what systems a credit card exactly has. There are many benefits but also costs by using a credit card. If you know exactly how to use it, it is totally useful to have. But if you don't know how to use it, it can hurt you really bad!Remember that a credit card is not a free money! If you use it to buy something, you have to pay back! Therefore, the lessons that we learned this week are really important and helpful in the future, or even now!

Again, what we learned this week are really important and helpful. Fortunately, I don't have any credit cards with me, so I don't need to worry about it right now, but I probably will have one in the future, so I am glad to have this class (:

How To Save Your Money?

This week, we continued learning about banking, but we more focused learning on BUDGET. We learned how to financial our money. Since we are still high school students, and many of us live with our family, we still don't get an idea of how to save money and why it is important to save money, or study about personal finance. On Thursday, we watched the movie about how people save their money and tips of saving money. I learned many things from the movie, but at the same time, I started concerning about my future. Can I make enough money to live in the future? Can I financial my money by myself in the future? 
In the movie they say that it is important to: 

• save your money NOW
• think difference between NEEDS and WANTS
• choose right bank for you
• check credit report every year
• get retirement plan, student loans and health insurance
• think carefully before using credit card and buying stuff
• think about future
• ask for help when you need to 

etc...

I learned really important lesson from the movie, and I want to think more about financial plan for my future. 

Reflection Of This Week

This week, we finally get into Personal Finance! First topic we've studied is Money & Banking. 

We all have money in our life, but if we think about difenition of money, it's hard to tell, isn't it? MONEY is any good that is widely accepted for the purposes of exchange and in the repayment of debts. So money can be anything unless it is 1)stable in value 2)scarce 3)accepted 4)divisible 5)portable 6)durable 7)difficult to counterfeit. To get used to this topic, we created our own island, and made our island's resources and money. We also discussed how to trade money each other.

After we learned about money, now we have started learning about banking. Banks makes money by charging interest. Banks are the safest place to save our money in! We didn't really learn much about banking this week though, we made our own banking account in our class. We learned how to set checking acount, how to check money, how to deposit or pay money, etc.

I really enjoyed the class this week, because I could learn how to set a bank account. I think what we did in class this week will be really usufule in the future because as we get an adult, and become independent from our parents, we will difenetly have to know these things. I really look forward to learn more about them in the class next week!

What we learned this week

So this week, we learned how to measure economic activity. This includes GDP, Inflation, Standard of living, and Business cycle etc. We also did the chart that compare GDP, unemployment rate, debt, inflation rate, population under poverty line etc, of 10 countries. The chart helped very much to understand how well countries do in economy. It's surprised me that GDP and unemployment rate and population under poverty line are not proportional. I used to think that if GDP of a country is high, then unemployment rate and population under poverty line are low. But this is not what I thought. For example, U.S. has the highest GDP among Canada, Australia, German, France, Italy, China, Japan, Vietnam, and South Korea. However, U.S. unemployment rate and population under poverty line are also third highest among these countries. 
This week's lessons were kinda hard for me to understand all, but I hope I can get all before a test on Friday! 

Competition

Finally, midterm exams are over! 

Good Job You Guys :D

This week we covered fun topic which is competition!

When we hear about a competition, we usually think of bad thing happening. However, competition in market economy gives us the best possible product at the best possible price. So, we definitely need a competition in our market economy! 

There are four types of competition.

Perfect Competition: ex) agriculture  

• Standardized products
• Numerous buyers & sellers
• Freedom to enter & exit the market
• Independent buyer & sellers
• Well-informed buyers & sellers

Monopoly: ex) cable company 

• Least competitive of all market structures
• Characteristics of Monopoly
• only one seller
• Restricted, Regulated Market by government
• sellers control prices

Monopolistic Competition: ex) cheeseburger 

• Many sellers and many buyers
• Similar but differentiated products
• Limited control of price (sellers control the price): most of prices are the same.
• Freedom to enter and exit market

Oligopoly: ex) cereal company 

• Few sellers and many buyers
• Standardized or differentiated products
• More control of prices
• Little free to enter or exit market

In our economy, I think Monopolistic Competition is the most fit-able. I think so because it's competitive but not as competitive as the Perfect Competition, there is a freedom to enter and exit the market, and there are many sellers and many buyers. I believe that competition is important to keep up our economy better and better. Therefore, I don't think monopoly and oligopoly are good idea. Even though the Perfect Competition is the ideal model of a market economy, I think this is not good idea either, because all products are standardized which means we all have to have the same goods and services. Therefore, in my opinion, the Monopolistic Competition is what our economy need.

what we learned this week!

This week we learned about supply. Supply is a the willingness AND ability of producers to offer goods and services for sale. Law of supply is opposite to law of demand that producers are willing to sell more of a good or service at a higher price than they are at a lower price. 

We also learned about 6 factors that change supply curve.

• input cost = supplier’s costs increase
• labor productivity = increase productivity/decreased costs
• technology = better technology can improve technology
• government actions = can help or hinder production
• producer expectations = future prices affect production
• number of producers = more producers = more product

We also learned how to create production costs and revenue schedule.

It was a little bit hard for me to understand how to create the schedule. However, I think this is important to know how to create it and also how to see it because it helps us to know prices of products that producers want to put. It also helps us to know what price we should put when we sell something.

Tripling tobacco tax 'could prevent 200 million early deaths'

This week, we learned about demands and elasticity in class. Today I want to talk about elasticity using tobacco as an example.

Tripling tobacco tax 'could prevent 200 million early deaths'

published January 2, 2014/Reuters

Researchers said on Wednesday that tripling tobacco tax globally would cut smoking by a third and prevent 200 million premature deaths this century from lung cancer and other diseases. In a review in the New England Journal of Medicine, scientists from the charity Cancer Research UK (CRUK) said rising taxes by a large amount per cigarette would encourage people to quit smoking altogether rather than switch to cheaper brands, and help stop young people from taking up the habit, and it would affect not only in poor countries but also rich countries. Since tobacco kills almost 6 million of people a year, it will be good to put higher tax on tobacco as soon as possible. 

I agree with this article because in class I learned that products that are not necessity for people tend to be elastic, and tobaccos too are not necessity for people. Putting high taxes on tobaccos can make more opportunities for people who smoke to think whether or not to stop smoking because it will surely hurts their "wallet." However, I don't think only putting high tax on tobaccos is good way to cut people smoking, but making people aware how dangerous smoking is for our health is the first thing we need to do in order to cut people smoking.

The Article  <-- link to the article   

What we learned this week!

Hello! Did you guys enjoy your snow days? Because of unexpected days off, we only had 3 economic classes this week and therefore we couldn't learn much :( BUT! We started learning about new fun material which is DEMAND = desire to have and the ability to pay. For example, if you want some chocolates, and you have enough money to buy them, it is DEMAND. BUT,if you want new house, but you don't have enough money to buy it CAN'T be called as DEMAND.People tend to buy more when price of stuff is lower, and buy less when price of stuff is higher = LAW OF DEMAND. To understand these shift, we can use DEMAND SCHEDULE = a listing of how much of an item an individual is willing to purchase at each price and DEMAND CURVES = graph that shows the data from a demand schedule. 

ex)

Remember that demand curves always go downward :( <--

Demand curves are important to our business both producers and consumers because producers can know when they need to lower or higher a price of product, and consumers can know when a price of product goes up or down, and when to buy it. 

Demand affects our daily life too. For example, when producer sell new smartphones, he will put price little higher on them because they are new and have many attractive features that he expects many people will buy them. Then later, he will lower a price of them because they are not new anymore, and many other new smartphones will come out by then OR only few people bought them. And people who want to buy these new smartphone might wait until the price goes down, which means quantity of the smartphone will goes up. 

We are going to continue learning about demand next week and also we are going to have fun project to do!    
  

About Tax!

So this week, we talked about government and free enterprise system, taxes, and government's budget and spending in the class. First we learned when and how governments involve in a free enterprise system, and public goods. Then we learned about taxes including proportional tax, regressive tax, and progressive tax. Lastly, we learned about a government's budget and spending, which includes social spending and connection between tax and a government.
Today I want to talk about proportional, regressive, and progressive tax. In the class, we demonstrated these three taxes by fake money and us. We know that proportional tax is a system that everyone pays the same percentage of tax, progressive tax is a system that people with more income pay higher percentage of tax, and regressive tax is a system that people with less income pay higher percentage. 
So which tax structures should poor and developing countries have? At first, I think progressive tax is the best tax structure among all three. But I start to think that maybe it only affects in big countries which have range of rich and poor. Therefore, I think that proportional tax is the best tax structure for poor and developing countries. I think that way because in poor countries, most of people are poor and they really don't have rich people. Therefore, most of people have almost the same range of income, which makes me think that progressive tax doesn't fit in those countries. On the other hand, proportional tax which people have to pay the same percentage of tax, may fit more in those countries.

What do you think about my opinion?  

The Economic Impact Of The Winter Olympics

So today I want to talk about how the Winter Olympics impacts the economy!

The Economic Impact Of The Winter Olympics: Not Great For Russia But Sochi Stands To Gain

written by Christopher Harress 

on February 08 2014

The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics kicked off in glorious style on Friday with an elaborate opening ceremony for what is expected to be the most expensive Olympic games in history, costing in excess of $50 billion and far exceeding the 2008 Beijing Summer Games, a record many said would never be beaten.

According to a report by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development(EBRD), This astronomical cost will not boost Russia’s national economy in any way, but it may create a lasting legacy for the city of Sochi and the southern Krasnodar region of Russia, which will benefit from improved services that may attract business in the future. 

And while the EBRD report says countries generally do not benefit economically from hosting such events, infrastructure and jobs are created that last well after the games have moved on. This is especially important for emerging economies, because they tend to spend far more on hosting games than developed nations. In short, they are improving the lives and business prospects of the population in those regions.

(Olympic benefit to Sochi  IOC)

Olympics also create jobs, although most are not permanent. Russian currently has low unemployment but operates a tight labor market, which, as the report suggests, leaves limited scope for creation of new employment. 

(Which Olympics has created the most jobs  IOC)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Do you think holding Olympics gives good benefit for country's economy?

I say both yes and no. I kinda think "yes", because the Olympic gives country many attentions, job opportunities, and money etc. I also think "no" because to hold the Olympic, country needs a lot of money to spend for such as ceremonies, traffics, places for athletes etc. Even though they also get benefits from ticket sales, food sales, hotel sales, etc., they don't get much profits because those money they get are not much different to money they spend.

So what do you think about that? 

Keep cheering for U.S. athletes in the Winter Olympics!:D

What we did this week!

So this week, we pretty much focused on market economy. 

Fundamental of Market Economy is:

• Private Property
• Everyone is free to own and use private property.
• Specialization
• Able to concentrate their efforts in areas where they have an advantage.
• Consumer Sovereignty
• Buyers decide what is acceptable by deciding what to buy and what not to buy.
• Competition
• Sellers are free to attempt to get the business of others by offering the best deal.
• Voluntary Exchange
• a win-win situation
• Limited Government Involvement
• Buyers and sellers must be free to operate with minimal government intervention.

Also we talked about free enterprise system: which is the same concept as the market economy, and circular, and the circular flow model:which shows us movement of goods, money, and services.

Today I want to more about circular flow model. I like circular flow model because it can shows us What process goods -- that we buy -- goes through and what process money -- that we spend -- goes through. I think to understand the circular flow model is very important in order to know more about economy. Also, in the circular flow model, nothing can be missed. To keep circle (economy) flow, we need all four Household, Factors of Product, Business, and Market.

Because we keep this process in balance, our market economy still work in today's economy.

Do you think market economy can exist without circular flow model? -- my answer is no. 

What do you think?

Next week, we gonna study more about circular flow model. This time, government will also join in the model and model will be more complex. So be ready everyone!

What We Learned This Week!

This week, in economy class, we learned about type of economy including 
traditional economy, command economy, and market economy. To whom 
forget what these three are, here is brief definitions of them!

• Traditional economy: an economic system in which people make economic decisions based on customs and beliefs that have been handed down from one generation to the next 
• Command economy: an economic system in which the government makes all economic decision
• Market economy: an economic system based on individual choice and voluntary exchange

Also this week, we learned about Adam Smith who was founder of Capitalism and Karl Marx who was founder of Communism, and did project of these two. We all did good job making dialog and presenting them! :)

Today, I want to talk little bit more about type of economy that we learned this week! 

I guess we kinda agree that market economy is the best economic system among of all types of economy. And I agree that too. BUT! even it has many pros in market economy, there are also some cons in market economy too. For example, market economy can make large gap between rich and poor. That's the big problem. How can we solve these problems?  In my opinion, there is actually no way to solve these problem completely. It will have been the problem forever in this world. BUT, if we really really want to loosen gap between rich and poor, the way we can do is volunteer. If we contribute together to raise money for poor, or give charity, shelters, or food for poor, we might be able to loosen gap between rich and poor in the future, even though it's gonna take long time. This is my opinion.

What do you think we should do to solve disadvantage of market economy? Let me hear your opinion on comment!

See you guys next week :)

       

    

First Post!

Hello :) Nice to meet you everyone! This blog is all about economic!
Please enjoy :D