Asher's Final Reflection
These past three weeks have been some of the most interesting and informative weeks I have had for a long time. This course has supplied me with the financial knowledge that many adults don’t even know yet. I have learned so many things, more than I can list on this blog. Although, some of the most important lessons I have learned were through the books that I read during this course. The book “Your Money or Your Life” has taught me things I should and shouldn’t do in the future. One thing is living below one’s means. Everyone should try and do this. Maybe don’t go out to lunch as often at work. If one can buy an $800,000 house, then why not settle for a $600,000 or $700,000 house. Try not to buy new clothes anytime one wants them. All of these things add up to a considerable amount of money which one could’ve saved. Another thing that struck me in “Your Money or Your Life” was how much life energy one is trading for money. Reading about this made me realize what it means to earn a dollar.
Other things that I think have really stuck with me from this course is planning for retirement. I can tell you right now, that I don’t want to be working for my entire life. Instead, I want to start saving and putting my money in an IRA account. This course has inspired me to start saving money to put into an IRA. Another account that can be very useful is a 401k. If the company gives the employees a 401k then you better take it. Let's say the company matches 5% of one's salary. That means if one puts 5% of their salary into a 401k, the company will do the same. I know right, it's free money. You don’t hear that very much do you nowadays. On top of all this, I also learned a lot from playing the life game. In this game, one is essentially mapping out their entire life. The life game starts at the beginning of college and finishes at age 65. One gets to see all of the expenses they would normally see with paying for college, rental costs for houses, food costs, and so much more. One also gets to see the profits from their salary, IRA account, dividends from investments, and the growth of their emergency fund. Once all of this data is filled out, everyone rolls the dice with the chance of getting good and bad things. One might roll the dice and inherit $100,000, or roll the dice and lose their job for 8 months. Now to wrap it all up, this class has helped me to understand all the things that go into having a financially responsible life. I am very glad that I took this class and I would recommend this class to everyone.
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