May 2025 – Page 2 – David's Desk

My Top 5 Investing Tips

Personal Finance Lesson 140 Assignment

In this assignment, I will be giving 5 tips of investing advice. (Note: I am not by any means an investment professional, this is a required school assignment!)

Top 5 Investing Tips

Diversify: This is one of the most important things to do when investing in anything. If you invest only in one stock and that stock drops, you would lose a lot of money! Diversification helps minimize your losses and maximize your gains.
Use index funds: Index funds are an easy way to diversify, and they can help reduce transaction fees. It is less expensive to buy index funds than each of the individual stocks.
Research: Things will change over time, so investment advice given years ago may not be as relevant today. Make sure you do your research so you know what you are getting into.
Pay attention to your investments: This seems obvious, but make sure you are regularly checking on your investments to see how they are doing. If you need to, you can sell off or buy more assets.
Make an emergency fund: A very important one! Set aside some cash or easily exchangeable assets, so that you have extra funds for an emergency. Make sure they are easily exchangeable, you don’t want to have real estate as your emergency fund!

These are my top 5 investing tips. I didn’t recommend specific stocks or investments, that is up to you! Personally, I would invest in bitcoin, gold and other precious metals, and stocks or index funds.

If you have any other tips you would like to add, please comment below.

America in the 1950’s

8G History Lesson 130 Assignment

In this assignment, I will be summarizing the events and culture in America during the 1950’s.

Civil Rights Movement

The 50’s saw increased awareness of the civil rights movement. This was a time when America was segregated. Schools, restaurants, pools, parks, and even water fountains were segregated, separating the Black and White facilities. This was extremely unfair, and people had been against it for a long time, but the movement was brought to light in the 50’s. One of the significant events was the Montgomery bus boycott. This started when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white person that got on the bus. Black Americans at the time were expected to give up their seats anytime a white person got onto the bus. This sparked a full-on boycott of the bus system in Montgomery, with Martin Luther King Jr. as the leader. It lasted almost a whole year.

There were also many other acts of protest, including marches. A famous one was the Selma march. Tragically, many people that peacefully protested during the marches were brutally hurt and sometimes killed by the police force, as in the Bloody Sunday event during the Selma march. The issues of racial equality are still prominent today, and movements such as Black Lives Matter have gained popularity.

Television and Music

Television became very common in American households during the 1950’s. In 1950, only about 9 percent of Americans owned a television set, but by the end of the 50’s it was nearing 90 percent. Popular shows included I Love Lucy, Leave It to Beaver, and many others. Quiz shows also became popular. Today, over 96 percent of Americans have a TV.

A new type of music became popular in the 50’s. Called rock and roll, it was a hybrid of many different styles. One of the first and most famous rock and roll artist was none other than the great Elvis Presley. Rock and roll remains one of the most (if not the most) popular genres of music today.

References:

https://www.britannica.com/event/American-civil-rights-movement

https://www.britannica.com/art/television-in-the-United-States/The-late-Golden-Age

https://www.britannica.com/place/United-States/Popular-music

How My Life Plans Have Changed in the Last 6 Months

Personal Finance Lesson 135

In this assignment, I will write how my life plans have changed in the past 6 months as a result of this course.

In the Personal Finance course so far, I have learned many important skills. My life plans have changed in a few ways:

Time Management: I have been managing my time more than I had been before taking this course. I use a weekly planner, a calendar, and a checklist (both paper and digital versions). I feel that this has helped me manage my time better. I hope to continue doing this.
Investing: I have also learned some valuable investing skills, and I want to look into different forms of investing, such as stocks, precious metals, and Bitcoin.
Writing skills: This isn’t really a way that my life plans have changed, but my writing skills have certainly improved. Now that I think about it, this could bring up some potential job opportunities!
College: I still haven’t decided whether or not I want to go to college, but this course has given me valuable insight and it will help me make a decision later.

These are all ways that my plans have changed. Hopefully I can implement the skills learned in this course, and use them to my benefit.

Great Authors of the 20th Century

8G History Lesson 125 Assignment

Today I will be writing about 2 great authors of the 20th century, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.

J.R.R. Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892. He lived in South Africa until he was 4, when he moved to England because his father had passed away. Sadly, his mother also died in 1904, leaving Tolkien and his younger brother orphans. They were taken into the care of a Catholic priest. Tolkien attended Exeter College in Oxford, and after graduating he became a teacher. He was an English professor for most of his life. Tolkien met C.S. Lewis at school, and they became friends. They started going to a writing group called the Inklings.

Tolkien wrote many books, but by far his most well-known and best-selling is The Lord of the Rings. It is a fantastical epic, with creatures such as dwarves, elves, ogres, etc. It is usually published in three separate volumes, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. There is also an immensely popular prequel, The Hobbit, (published before LOTR) which sets a background for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The books remain very popular today, and all of the books have movie adaptations, which are very popular. Tolkien has also published a few other books relating to Middle Earth, the fictional world he created, but they are not as popular as the main series.

Tolkien died on September 3, 1973. Some of his works were published after his death.

C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis was born on November 29, 1898. He was interested in writing even at an early age, encouraged by his parents. He attended many boarding schools, and later studied at Oxford college. He was an atheist until fellow writer and friend J.R.R. Tolkien encouraged Lewis to pursue faith.

His first successful work was Out of the Silent Planet, a science fiction book. He followed this up with two others that completed the trilogy. They were reviewed in the Inklings group.

C.S. Lewis’ most famous work is the Narnia series. The first book, the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, was published in 1950. The books have Christian symbolism woven into them.

Lewis died on November 22, 1963.

Both of these authors were very influential, and their books are still wildly popular today.