Taxes Taxes Taxes!

Personal Finance Week 18 Assignment

Well you can probably guess at what this assignment is about! *sigh* Yep, taxes! I’ll be writing my 200 words this week on: What method of preparing my taxes would I choose and why.

There are a few different methods, and I’ll cover the pros and cons of each one and then pick which one I would prefer.

1. IRS Paper Form

Pros:

If you choose to file your taxes the old-fashioned way, you have more control over your results. It is also more secure. It also can be cheaper than hiring a professional.

Cons:

It can be time consuming and tedious!

2. Tax Software (example: TurboTax):

Pros:

It is more simple than the other options.

Cons:

Depending on the tax software you are using, it may not offer all of the options you are looking for. It also may not be as private or secure.

3. Hiring a Tax Professional

Pros:

You have someone who does taxes for a living, so they have lots of experience. They are more time-saving than filing your taxes alone.

Cons:

More expensive than the other options.

Okay, I’ve listed the 3 main ways you can do taxes, and I have to go with the first one. Why? Simply because I don’t have much taxes to file! At my age and income level, the tax form will be very simple for me to fill out. It wouldn’t make sense to hire a professional just to do a very simple form. So when that time does come for me to do those taxes(and I’m guessing it will be sooner than I think 🙁), I’ll be ready!

31
Jan, 2025

Henry Ford

Personal Finance Week 14 Assignment

Henry Ford was an American industrialist and inventor. He was famous for inventing the model T, the first mass-produced car.

Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863, to William and Mary Ford. He worked on the family farm as a kid. Ford moved to Detroit at age 16. He built a type of tractor.

Ford experimented with gas-powered motors, and in 1896 he completed a gas-powered horseless carriage. He sold that model to work on making a second model.

Henry Ford founded the Ford Motor Company in 1903, and it started with good success. The Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers didn’t give him a license. They said he couldn’t continue producing cars. Ford won the case.

In 1908, the Ford Motor Company unveiled the Model T, a very affordable car due to its mass-production. Ford sold more than 16 million cars while it was on the market. The cars were built on an assembly line, at a rate of one car every 93 minutes, which was revolutionary at the time!

Ford increased the amount that his workers were being paid, and dropped the time that they needed to work, which led people to praise him for his humanitarianism.

The Ford Motor Company also produced other models besides the model T, but in 1909, Ford said that he would only produce the model T in the future. Some people were upset about this. However, it allowed the company to focus completely on the model T. They continued to improve it and make it cheaper.

Ford was a determined man who shaped history. His inventions helped pave the way for modern-day assembly lines, which have revolutionized the way products are made.

PF Week 13-Small business idea

One idea that I have for a small business is a gardening business.

The first step is to order seeds and plants. I will have to choose which plants will be the most productive and have the highest value to work ratio, because I can’t plant every vegetable! Some ideas: Peas, potatoes, green beans, peppers.

After the seeds come, I will need to plant any seeds that need to be germinated inside, like peppers. That will require careful work.

After that, it’s tilling time! We already have the tools, so I don’t need to buy any.

Next, it’s preparation and planting time. For peas, I will need trellis/mesh for them to climb on. For peppers and tomatoes, stakes are required.

Then comes the grind: keeping the garden alive! Weeding, weeding, and more weeding. If it’s dry out, watering! I could set up automatic sprinkler systems to auto-water the plants when it’s dry out.

Last is harvesting the vegetables, the most fun part (in my opinion!)

Phew, all that work, and now the fruits of my labor are…

BUT WAIT!

That’s just one part of running a gardening business! Don’t forget to manage the more technical side of it! I also need to set up the business side of it! I will need to figure out a put advertisements up, and set the prices.

Then, selling the vegetables. I will need to find a suitable location.

After all that is finished, the fruits of my labor…

Money(and veggies!):-)

17
Jan, 2025

PF Lesson 60 Assignment

In this assignment, I will be writing about American credit card debt and how it has changed over the past few years.

American credit card debt has been rising over the past 25 or so years, since tracking began in 1999. half of credit card owners have debt on their cards! Over half of all credit card owners pay off their balance every month. These people enjoy no interest rates. But for the other half of credit card owners who have debt on their cards, they can become trapped, drowning in the high interest rates.

According to lendingtree.com, the total credit card balance of all the cardholders in the U.S. is $1.166 trillion dollars! (This was in august of 2024, so the total may be higher now.) Credit card interest rates are rising too, and are currently around 20.15%.

If you can’t pay off your credit card balance every month, stop and reconsider: Is owning a credit card or that particular credit card helping you or hurting you more?

In summary, American credit card debt has been rising and it is becoming harder to stay out of the trap of high interest rates.

See PF Lesson 55 Assignment for more information on credit card interest rates.

References:

https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2024/08/26/us-credit-card-debt-continues-to-rise-as-housing-and-other-costs-remain-high-for-the-lowest-earners/

https://www.lendingtree.com/credit-cards/study/credit-card-debt-statistics

PF Lesson 50 Assignment

In this assignment, I will explain why interest rates are different for different kinds of loans.

Loan prices are always different for different loans. There are many reasons why they are different. Here are some:

The risk of a loan can impact the interest rate because if there is higher risk, the lender wants to be sure they can make their money out of it. High-risk loans include personal loans, and credit card loans. These are riskier, because the lender doesn’t know if the person receiving the money will pay it back. If you have a credit card, you are probably very well aware of the high interest rates.

Time can also affect the interest rate. Short-term loans might have lower interest rates because the lender’s money is not away for as long, which means that longer-term loans would have higher interest rates because the lenders money would be away for longer. An example of a long-term loan would be a mortgage.

Other reasons:

If the lender thinks the loan is going to be used to make more money, or increase the borrower’s productivity, then the lender might give a lower interest rate, because it is more likely that the loan will be payed back.

The credit score of the borrower can also impact the interest rate.

In short, the main reasons that make interest rates different are time, risk, credit score, and what the loan will be used for.