This and that...

DUDE.  Is anyone actually still following/reading this blog?  
Probably not... it's all good though :)


So economic news headlines...

• A former Democratic congressman says his party “set him up” after he opposed health care. His claim was dismissed after everyone realized that to set him up, Democrats would have had to work together.
• Two oldest people in the US died.  No one took out stocks on their lives.  No one made money.
• Canada's budget 2010... should not have taken months to finish.  Pretty basic stuff going on; making lives easier for international investors, making life harder for those with bad teeth and mother earth.  $19 billion in new federal stimulus.  Ooh and we now get plastic money! [insert bad joke here]
• Cisco made a faster internet router.  It now has a market cap of 149.67B... 
• Stocks climbed at midsession Tuesday, following a choppy morning, as investors mulled the latest corporate deal and profit news on the one-year anniversary of the bear market bottom.  Stocks now cost more.

Add your own newsworthy links in the comments!  Or not...

Economics, Day 1 (and 2 and 3)

I'm going to need a lot of pictures to cover up the massive amounts of text.. Just kidding! (or am I?)

So.

Economics itself is basically the study of how we satisfy our endless (especially in the teen years) wants, in a world where nothing is unlimited. Wow, that's a mouthful.

Here are the concepts behind that statement:

-our wants are unlimited. (I mean, I want to get Halo 3, Mass Effect 2, a lifetime supply of cheddar, cheetos.. it never ends!)

-The only problem is that nothing is unlimited here on Earth (the world is only so big..), so we can never really satisfy ourselves.

But it gets worse.. Not only can we never satisfy our needs because of limited materials, those scarce resources that are in demand begin to have value. The less of it there is, the more valuable it is, but only if there's a demand for it. So now we have to give something up in order to get what we want! (think conservation of energy, if that helps at all)

And that brings us to incentives!

Simply put, incentives are the benefits we get from using a product, be they usefulness, happiness, pride, or whatever else you can get from a product (the incentive I have to buy Mass Effect 2 is that it will make me very happy (everyone loves blowing up aliens!)). Those benefits are called utility.

This is getting longer than I hoped, so let's end off with micro- and macroeconomics.

Microeconomics is the stuff you can see that affects the economy, that being of course buying and selling, price fluctuation, etc.

Macroeconomics however, is the really large-scale goings on that you can't really see without the aid of some good old statistics (yaay..) That might include inflation, fiscal policy, international trade, etc.

So there's the summary of my economics class so far, I hope you find it informative!

By the way, if you want to learn some more of the details of these classes, or want to learn more of the financial jargon you might find in the business section, go here! (it'll still be my writing though, so don't get your hopes up..)

Hooray!

Just a quick post to say that after this week, I'll be taking a class in economics which I am, truth be told, TOTALLY PUMPED FOR!! The course goes through both macro- and micro- economics (concepts that will be elaborated upon later, though I suggest you just look it up on wikipedia), and I will be trying to give you as much coverage on the course as I can!

Be warned, however, for this may end up containing more than just personal finance mumbo jumbo, and could be completely irrelevant to your life (foreign trade probably isn't that big of a deal for you guys). So, if Kelly and the school board (sounds like a rock band doesn't it?) approve, I'll be posting some of that too.

That's all for now, I hope it turns out well!

Merry Christmas!

So, on the twelfth day of Christmas  my true love gave me a partrige in a pear tree and a whole wack of other stuff.  But in today's messed up financial situation, what with Monopoly Recession Edition out and everything, where on earth did he get that much money?  

Well, seeing as I don't actually know the answer to that, I'll just completely change the topic now.  Hey, but I do know where that money is now!  See the picture below ((©funnelinc.com))

Back in the good old days, every dollar had it's equal in metal.  What that meant was your money was right there in the vault.  But now, with the digitalization of money, your dollar is everywhere.  Only "the computer" knows how much you actually have.  And simply put, if anything happens to that computer, you're screwed.  (not really though, I'm just half kidding...)

So, what are these almighty computers?  Financially Ill (with help from our buddies at Popsci) has your answers!  Stay tuned to find out!


Happy holidays :)

Financial course... ahh!!!

 

Okay guys, here's a secret... you ready?  (it's alright, I'll wait ;D)  THE FINANCIAL COURSE IS REALLY, REALLY HARD!!!  Ahh!!!  ESPECIALLY THE STOCK SECTION!!!  IT MAKES NO SENSE!!! :(  And I was the one arguing for it!  (epic fail, right there :P)  

Sorry, had to get that out!  Sample questions are below... see if you get them :)

How much do you cost?

Haha yup, surprise guys! I'm back! Probably not for long though, so no need to worry :) I had this uber long blog written out but someone (wonder who? ;)) deleted it... basically I was just saying thanks for your emails and asking if anyone wanted to guest blog... are you people still up for it? Or anyone else out there want to guest blog on finance? It's really interesting! (not trying to be sarcastic!) Anywho, onto my blog post!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It seems like everyone out there is worried about the financial situation out there now. And they're worried about us! In fact, some even think we caused the recession! According to this article our folks even "go back to the banker and take out a line of credit and maybe a second mortgage" because we "cost so much to maintain"! What a bite to swallow! This couldn't be true! No $#&!@ way! But lets think... could there be some truth to this article? I've collected a list of some teen's (not mine of course, pssh, no way! Why would you even think about that? ;)) monthly expenses and added them up below.

A month's expenses of the "single greatest cause of the global financial meltdown"

(aka us)

• Clothes - okay, depending on who you are, this may be the place where most of the money goes towards. Brand names are an "essential thing for young people", and cost quite a bit... This teenager (not me, I repeat, not me!!!) bought a pair of Lulu pants, two pairs of A&F shorts, two Hollister hoodies, and 4 tees at Aeropostale this month which adds up to... $500 ouch.
• Your cell phone bill - how often are you not texting every day? Considering there's national texting competitions now a days, that probably isn't very often. And those 15 cent messages add up... fast. Of course, with a student plan from Telus, this only costed $25!
• Food - yeah, I know we don't pay for our own meals, but I'm talking about things like that Pepsi (which is, by the way, better than Coke) and Kit-Kat bar you consumed after volleyball practice, the bag of chips you have every lunch, the slushies from Macs you grab with your pals on the weekends and who knows what else! Lets say Sam (I'm calling the teen Sam now) did exactly that. So $6 maybe every school day (6x5 for you math people out there) plus $4 every weekend (4x2) times around 4 weeks in a month gives us a total of... (wait, gotta grab my calculator :D) $152 whoa.
• Entertainment - like, the movies that Sam goes to with his friends every friday ($10), the concerts he goes to every month ($100)and stuff like that. If there were 4 fridays, then Sam would spend... $140 this month
• Gas - I don`t drive, so I`m not too sure how much this costs... (and I'm too lazy to google it) but let's put it at about 2 full tanks at $45 per fill up, so that makes $270 (I lied, I did google it ;))

So, all in all, 500 + 25 + 152 +140 +270 = $947 spent every month on you. That could very well be how much your folks monthly mortgage payments are... :O No wonder some parents are going with the $50 a month allowances now. Time to cut back a tad perhaps, hey?

By the way, if any of you want to guest post, leave a comment and we'll (I'll?) get back to you :)

A great site! (last post, promise!)

If anyone still has enough enthusiasm to gain some knowledge of personal finance and some economics (maybe *gasp* in your free time), I've found a truly magnificent internet resource that gives the basics in a fast and understandable way.

Here's the link: http://www.fool.com/investing/basics/index.aspx?source=ifltnvpnv0000001

The site itself (fool.com) is a great way to keep up to date with the modern economy and businesses. It's a really informative and fun site, and I strongly recommend everybody try it.

Have fun!

(above image) Available in tee-shirt form from "snorgtees.com"