Personal Finance | Buy Assignments Online
Reflect on all that you have learned in this course. Summarize your financial situation and plans. Be sure to include plans for budgeting, saving, debt and credit, taxes and insurance, investing, retirement and estate planning. Additionally, describe your future career goals and what steps you need to take reach those goals, including plans to pursue a degree in higher education.
Grantham University
I am faced with a lot of financial problems. One of my financial problems is my inability to budget funds well. This is because the income I have is very little and dividing it across various uses becomes very difficult. I sometimes find that my monthly budget exceeds the salary I get and thus I am faced with challenge on what to adjust. My other financial problem is that I am not able to save enough money. At the beginning of the year I always set a target on the amount that I should save for the entire year. But, at the middle of the year I found out I have not saved even a quarter of my target. I feel that my inability to save is because I have no family and thus I have fewer responsibilities (Trygub, I., & Lissitsina, I., 2015).
I have various financial goals. My first goal is to lower my monthly expenditure to half my monthly salary. This will ensure that I am able to save more money. Another goal is having a comfortable retirement. Lastly I have a goal of purchasing a home in two years. This means that I should start saving money for that. I think my above discussed problems can be solved used some practical solutions; these solutions will also help in achieving my goals. I feel that I should set my priorities right when it comes to spending and cut expense on luxuries such as recreation. This will help lower my expenses and help me save more.
Also, I should get a retirement plan from one of the financial institutions. This retirement plan will help in saving little money every month for my retirement. This will ensure that when I retire I don’t have a lot of financial struggles (King, J., & Carey, M., 2017). In order to achieve the purchase of the home I will have to know the value of a home I would like to own. After knowing this value I will create a separate bank savings account for it. I will then divide the amount by the months I have to purchasing the home. I will make sure that each month I deposit that amount to that bank account.
References
King, J., & Carey, M. (2017). Personal Finance. Oxford University Press.
Trygub, I., & Lissitsina, I. (2015). Personal finance planning.
Personal Savings Strategies Week 3.doc
Running Head: PERSONAL SAVINGS STRATEGIES 1
PERSONAL SAVINGS STRATEGIES 2
Personal Savings Strategies
Chris Vinson
Grantham University
Part I: Identify all the lazy dollars in your financial life. Identify source, amount and what action might be indicated.
Lazy dollars are the sum of that does not generate any return or generating a small amount than the expected in an investment or business.
Have made investments in the past but failed to generate less returns than I expected. This is the lazy money from my investment. The auto spares shop in my local area. The amount I owe is $1800 and the interest rate is at 16%. This is exactly the amount of tax I pay. There is need to commercialize and displace the lazy dollars’ comfort.
Part II. Develop a personal and household savings plan. What savings strategies will you use to improve your financial situation? Explain why you chose each strategy instead of others that you did not choose. How much will you save each month? How much interest will you earn and how much will you have saved in 5 years, 10 years, and 20 years?
My personal and household investment plan will be investing in real estate since my brother is a contractor and he interacts with almost all sorts of people. He has friends who do the real estate business. I will work as a broker in this industry and am sure my financial situation will improve within some months (Ülkümen & Cheema, 2011).
I choose strategies that have no complications and very competitive. I will be saving $250. Will save $15000 in five years, $30,000 in ten years and $60,000 in twenty years.
Reference
Ülkümen, G., & Cheema, A. (2011). Framing goals to influence personal savings: The role of specificity and construal level. Journal of marketing research, 48(6), 958-969.
Week 2 Assignment. docx
Running head: SIMPLE HOUSEHOLD BUDGET 1
SIMPLE HOUSEHOLD BUDGET 2
Household Budget
Christopher Vinson
Grantham University
Household Budget
My household budget as a manager of a small restaurant is putting into consideration all my expenses, as well as family income for the month of August 2018. After carefully organizing all my earnings as well as my expenditures, I am now able to visualize how my spending character impacts my capital asset. I am in a position to track all my spending through my simple budget and identify areas for improvement. My budget would greatly help me to control as well as monitor my finances. Moreover, be able to achieve my objective of “being more financially wise” (Karageorgou et al. 2018). Below is my simple budget for the month of August 2018.
| Simple Household Budget | ||||
| Income per month (August, 2018) | ||||
| Item | Amount ($) | |||
| Investment | 280 | |||
| Spouse’s salary | 450 | |||
| Reimbursements | 105 | |||
| Others | 180 | |||
| Salary | 700 | |||
| Dividends | 85 | |||
| Interest | 200 | |||
| Total | 2000 | |||
| Expenses per month (August, 2018) | ||||
| Item | Amount ($) | |||
| Laundry | 30 | |||
| Gas | 160 | |||
| Credit cards | 109 | |||
| Groceries | 86 | |||
| IRA | 90 | |||
| Bills | 30 | |||
| Household repair | 75 | |||
| Property taxes | 190 | |||
| Ohers | 20 | |||
| Medical/Dental | 100 | |||
| Utilities | 45 | |||
| Savings | 350 | |||
| clothing | 89 | |||
| Daycare | 76 | |||
| Total | 1690 | |||
| Expenses Vs. Income | ||||
| Item | Amount ($) | |||
| Monthly Expenses | 1690 | |||
| Monthly Earning | 2000 | |||
| Disparity | 310 | |||
There are two key things which surprised me after coming up with my budget. Firstly, I was not aware that a lot of my money was going out on a monthly basis. Secondly, upon considering my income against my expenses, I have realized that I have roughly $310 which I don’t know how I use them, probably I misuse them. I am very excited that this budget is going to assist me from now and month to come to use my money appropriately and look for ways to reinvest the $310 back into my restaurant. I now look forward to minimizing my expenses, so I may achieve long-term progress of my restaurant.
Change in career would automatically impact my budget both negatively and positively. Firstly, the uncertainties associated with that is scary. Again, at best, “the income would only match what I am making now” (Gazeley, Holmes & Newell, 2018). I would incur extra expenses related to transportation as well as securing new facilities such as building, for carrying out my business. Furthermore, I may be forced to acquire more knowledge on the new career, making me return to school. That would be an extra burden to my income; although after I secure my degree I would turn out more marketable as well as being more eligible for new jobs that I never qualified before. I return, a career change would enable me to create more revenue as well as maintaining my liabilities at the same pace.
References
Gazeley, I., Holmes, R., & Newell, A. (2018). The Household Budget Survey in Western Europe, 1795-1965.
Karageorgou, D., Imamura, F., Zhang, J., Shi, P., Mozaffarian, D., & Micha, R. (2018). Assessing dietary intakes from household budget surveys: A national analysis in Bangladesh. PloS one, 13(8), e0202831.
Week 4 Assignment- fin210.docx
Running Head: DEBT 1
DEBT 1
Debt Management Plan
Christopher Vinson
Grantham University
Being in debt is a situation whereby you owe money to one or more parties or individuals (creditors). Debt can be borrowed money or purchases or utility payments among many other sources (Salami, 2017). A very high percentage of population in the country are in debt one way or another. I personally am in debt, whereby I owe money from three creditors who basically run my credit cards. They include; Capital One credit card where I owe 500 dollars, Credit One credit card where I owe 400 dollars, and finally Fingerhut where I owe 600 dollars. This totals to total debt of 1500 dollars.
1500 dollars is quite a huge sum of debt considering my age and the job am doing. I aspire to significantly reduce my debt to a manageable level in which I have good credit for future purposes or projects. There are several steps am trying to take in order to reduce my debt and have a basic need budget for my expenses. First step is I have set a target which is to halve my debt within six months. I have come up with a budget for my daily expenses and utilities where I have had to sacrifice a lot. For instance, I will be skipping lunch or have very light lunch, I will use public transportation more often and not lavish shop or partake outings during the weekends. This will automatically halve my monthly expense and utility budget. The other half is the money I plan to pay back my creditors equally each month. From my calculations, in six months I will have halved my total debt (Salami, 2017).
The major difficulty in my plan is to resist impulse shopping and going out on the weekend. I plan to practically implement my plan by first only walking around with the exact cash I need for that day; I won’t carry any of my credit cards to avoid spending. For the weekends I plan on finding an indoor hobby that will take up my time on the weekends.
References
Salami, A. (2017). Data Envelopment Analysis and Debt Management Plan.
Assignment.docx
Running head: TAX BRACKETS AND DEDUCTIONS 1
TAX BRACKETS AND DEDUCTIONS 3
Tax Brackets and Deductions
Christopher Vinson
Grantham University
Tax Brackets and Deductions
The United States tax system of 2018 operates on seven rates; 10,12,22,24, 32, 35 and 37 percent for each given amount of the taxable income one receives (US Tax Center, 2018). It would also be necessary for the taxpayer to understand that the system depends on the marital as well as the filing status of the payer. For instance, singles and married couples pay more taxes for a given income bracket compared to widows and widowers. I am single, and I live in the State of Florida, USA. My gross household income measures $14,400 per year. I fall into the second tax bracket, and I pay $952.50 plus $585, 12% of the amount above the lower taxable amount. The gross household income is $4875 above the lower tax bracket.
Some of the possible deductions include meals and telecommunication charges as well as repair and maintenance. Also, taxation on the real estate and personal property, that is immovable, and movable assets respectively comprise the possible deductions. Additionally, interests such as penalties on mortgages and their prepayment as well as business expenses make up the total deductions on the total taxable income.
Several approaches could ensure I reduce my gross household income to the next lowest tax bracket. First, reducing expenditure on transportation and entertainment could help a great deal. Secondly, moving to lands that charge lower real estate tax could be a better deal. Thirdly, avoiding many insurance covers could reduce the amount I expend in the household. Also, I should improve on my security and safety level at home to minimize losses on theft and casualties. Reducing charitable contributions could also be helpful in lowering the overall household income expenditure. The approaches that appear above will significantly reduce the amount of taxable income per year to the next lowest tax bracket.
References
US Tax Center (2018). 2018 Federal Tax Rates, Personal Exemptions, and Standards Deductions; IRS Tax Brackets and Deduction Amounts for Tax Year 2018. Retrieved from https://www.irs.com/articles/2018-federal-tax-rates-personal-exemptions-and-standard-deductions
Assignment.docx
Running Head: PERSONAL 1
PERSONAL 1
Personal
Christopher Vinson
Grantham University
For my personal investment plan, I have decided to invest in real estate. Bearing in mind that my dad is a contactor and he meets various types of people. He has rentals and so I think that he has enough knowledge and plan about the same. Since he interacts with different types of people, he gets the opportunity to purchase various types of buildings. Last week, he told me about a house that was build 20 years ago. The owner of the house wanted to build a new house. It is a lot with two little houses on it. He is letting me get a loan so I can be able to purchase the properties. I will have to choose this type of investment because my father has experience with it.
I work part time and my income is not much so I have to depend on my parents when I have no money. My father owns some rental properties and so I can get a loan under his name. We have discussed the issue and he is willing to help me. The price of rental properties will vary based on city.
The rental properties that I intend to purchase is located on is based in Detroit. This is the city with the lowest price to rent ratio. The rental property has two houses. This city has a price to rent ratio of 6.27. So he will get me a loan of $150,000, Perry, G. M. (2000). I will be able to buy the rental property and then get an income of $1800 a month. I will be able to get a maximum of $21600 a year. Means that I will have $108,000 in 5 years and $216,000 in 10 years. I will have $432,000 in 20 yrs., Perry, G. M. (2000).
Work Cited
Australian Taxation Office. (1996). Rental properties. Canberra: Australian Taxation Office.
Perry, G. M. (2000). Managing rental properties for maximum profit. Roseville, Calif: Prima Pub.
Assignment pf.docx
Running Head: MY NUMBER 1
MY NUMBER 1
Name of student
My Number
Instructor
Date
My Number
“My number” can be described as the numerical representation of the amount of money expressed in dollars that I should I have at the point when I stop working to earn or at the point of retirement to the point when I no longer need money. This could be traced as the money required to meet all my needs from retirement to death. To determine “My number”, I provided the required details to the calculator and computed the numerical figure. My expected retirement age is 57 years and I expect that I will need money until the age of 79 years. After providing my details, my number was automatically generated to be $ 1,389,768. From the program, I was also able to get more information which is an advice. For instance, to be able to arrive at my goal, this year I would need to save $ 11,171.
My number is likely to go up due to the fact that in the future I may have to support my spouse and I may also live longer than I have approximated before. With time, as we have observed before, the cost of living may rise and therefore I may only be able to purchase less with same amount of money (Van Ooijen et al., 2015). The future can also not be fully predicted and therefore eventualities in the coming days may require more financing further raising the cost.
To be able to meet the needs of the future after my retirement, each year I should be in a position to save $11,000 and the amount will need a return of 12 % to achieve my number. I understand that I need to change my saving habits. I need more diverse portfolio (Van Ooijen et al., 2015). This is because, with some safe accounts and others with higher risks, I will be able to balance the returns and eventually move towards achieving my target. I hope with these changes and better planning, I will be able to live comfortably thereafter retirement.
References
Van Ooijen, R., Alessie, R., & Kalwij, A. (2015). Saving behavior and portfolio choice after
retirement. De Economist, 163(3), 353-404.
