For December 20%

I am almost finished with my video and plan on having it uploaded to YouTube before the new year. When I'm finished ill update this post and add on the video link. I'm also going to type of everything that was said because some parts are very hard to hear.

Book Report

In our company we read a book called The Financial Marketing Concept. This book was a tool to teach people about the market and how we use the market to help and to apply it to our lives so we can make money. This book also teaches us how to make the market work for us. How the market works and what different types of things there are in the market. For example the book told us about what strong EMH and weak EMH is. Strong EMH is when the market is doing really well and inside dealers come in and make the price of that share higher in cost by buying the share. Semi-strong EMH is public information that is shown in the market place. Weak EMH is when there is nothing to compare the "wins" to. Weak EMH has virtually no background so you can't predict the "next" step, or the next thing that's going to happen. 

Learning the Ways

This past Wednesday I went to the Heartland and got the chance to interview two lovely residents. They talked of their many experiences, and about what their lives held. They both lived during the toughest times in our country and both felt very disrespected as elderly. "A lot of people in other cultures respect their elderly. Yet in our culture I feel like I'm treated like I'm dumb and useless, when really I've lived through so many magical things. Yet, no one will take the time to acknowledge those things." Hearing that made me realize, that is SO true. How often do you hear that old people are very intelligent? Compared to how often you hear that they are very stupid? I want to make that change, and I know it won't be easy. I do believe that it needs to change because watching people suffer and not feel comfortable sharing their MANY experiences, is very, very depressing.

Rasising vs. Keeping

Minimum wage has been raised 22 times since they first started it back in 1938 when it was only 25 cents. It was most recently raised in 2009 to 7.25 an hour, according to fas.org. The idea of more than doubling the minimum wage has never even been brought up before according to deseretnews.com. The idea of raising minimum wage sounds good if you think that money appears from no where and don't consider the economy and how it effects unskilled workers, according to groupstate.com if we raise minimum wage we will go into inflation, especially if we double it. I believe that it is important that we don't raise the minimum wage to 15 dollars per hour because that's raising it by WAY to much. Take this into consideration. A CNA makes 13 dollars an hour to feed residents, give them baths, make them comfortable, take them to the bathroom, help them with any physical and emotion problem, and to give complete and unconditional care. To be a CNA you have to take training which you don't get paid for, and you have to pay for it (about $500+) Now think about working at your local supermarket. People who don't really do anything for other people besides ring them up, and ask them if they found everything alright. Is it right for the super market people to be paid more? On another note, my dad owns a small business and pays all of his workers at least 10$ or more depending on how much they mean, and do for the company. For example, if he had just hired someone and all they knew how to do was drive and clean, that's all they would be used for and wouldn't be worth 15$ an hour, they'd be worth less. The workers that get paid more do more, like service calls, and are smart of the ends of what to do and what to look for when a furnace or air conditioner isn't running correctly. I believe if you want to make more money you should have to work for it, not just expect it. If you are a single parent, good for you. Want to make more money, then do it, don't just wait for something to happen. Get up and work hard and you will receive better pay. Working at a store won't pay the bills, so push yourself harder. Become someone you're proud of. If you're proud to flip burgers and McDonald's, then flip burgers at McDonald's, but if you work there don't expect something just because you want it. Work for it. I believe that raising the minimum wage isn't going to change anything because if it does go up then you are going to have problems still with paying things because the pricing on everything is GOING to go up. Say you work at McDonald's and you get the health and medical benefits from working there, and then they raised the minimum wage prices. According to ehow.com a big disadvantage is benefits won't be as great and training won't be as extensive. I don't believe that you would receive the same benefits because its hard enough for the owner to pay for everyone's wages and benefits. I believe to save profits that the owner would cut benefits. I believe that if minimum wage was to raise to $15 dollars then the price of EVERYTHING will raise along with it. BAD IDEA.

Fun Fact- Did you know that if we raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour the price of a furnace and the price of an air conditioner will double?

http://www.ehow.com/list_6386749_disadvantages-increasing-minimum-wage.html

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2012-05-175/minimum-wage-increase-bill-draws-opposition.html

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865591955/Dont-raise-the-minimum-wage.html

http://www.goupstate.com/article/20130901/OPINION/309011013

http://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/04/opinion/l-raising-minimum-wage-leads-to-inflation-410688.html

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42973.pdf

Define...

Stocks- A stock is an investment in a company.
Dividends- A dividend is when you get paid on a regular basis when you are a shareholder.
Trade- A trade is when you buy or sell any stocks for a short amount of time.
Catalyst- A catalyst is when you have a stock that you aren't looking at as an investment and you buy in and wait for a certain event to come up and sell it.

Lemonade stand game

The variables in this game are weather and price.
The constants in this game are cups and you could possibly consider the ice to be also.
The perishables in this game are the sugar and the lemons.
I've decided I'm not good at this game and if I were to ever run a lemonade stand it should not be my only job.... :)

November 20%

For November on my 20% I honestly haven't done anything but edit my video of my interview. I haven't gone back to the Heartland to interview more residents, and I haven't talked to Kaci since my last interview. I plan to have the video of the interview up on YouTube for public view by the end of December, and have possibly at least one more interview and a video.

Life in the Bahamas

The only indirect taxation is a real property tax, ranging from 0.75% to 1% for owner-occupied property and 0.5% to 1.5% on commercial property.

Bahamas
Income Tax Rate              0%

Bahamas
Corporate Tax Rate          0%  

Bahamas
Sales Tax / VAT Rate      0%

 

Living and working in the Bahamas would be probably the best place to go to not pay as many taxes. They have 0% income tax, 0% corporate tax, and 0% sales tax. So virtually they only thing I would have to take out of my check out be owner-occupied property, unless I lived in an apartment because then I wouldn't own the land and I would only have to pay for rent, for food, clothing, and healthcare. The healthcare in the Bahamas that I would choose depends on if I would have a family. I would check with the expat people. The expat people would tell me exactly what insurance I would need for any part of my life and so that if I wanted to get anything added such as dental plans I could add them in and they would find the perfect insurance plan for me.




http://www.expat-medical-insurance.com/country/bahamas/information/
http://www.doctorshosp.com/subpage.php?main_page=54&subpage=Healthcare-in-the-Bahamas

http://www.taxrates.cc/html/bahamas-tax-rates.html
 http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Americas/The-Bahamas-TAXATION.html#ixzz2jypmDo4x

BlackJack

"Common in and take a seat. Here's your chips." Kapptie said as I took the handful of chips and sat down completely confused. Everyone gathered around the table after they placed their backpacks on the other side of the room. I kept wondering what was going on but again no one knew.
"Today we are going to play blackjack. If you know the rules great and if you don't, oh well." Mr. Kapptie smiled and for a second I thought that he was kidding, but by the end I found out that he was completely serious. For the first round I sat out. I didn't know the rules of the game and there was no way that I was going to just 'wing' it. As I sat out I watched, and yet still didn't understand. I played the first game and lost because I went over 21. After I began to think lower numbers are better I started to win. I never went 'all in' because I was still completely unsure of how to play the game. I knew we had to play four hands to even be considered in the winning circle so after I played my four I went out. Although I only hand 11 chips, and didn't think I was going to win I still went out because everyone with the high number of chips went 'all in'. I thought, well there is still a chance that I could win, but I want to play it safe. After they played that hand we had no time left and even though I didn't win that's just fine with me. It taught me a couple things about stock, and that's all that really matters. :)

My stock and Investment

The stock that I bought that is a trade is Quicksilver. I bought this stock as a trade because it's a brand name just like mossimusso. The clothes that were really expensive and now are very cheap. I believe Quicksilver is a dying clothing brand. It picks up in the winter because Quicksiler is/was made like the brand "Burton" to be for winter apparel. "Burton" also makes other clothing for summer and is expensive. I researched and now believe that "Burton" has made Quicksilver "go out of style". The cool brand to wear is "Burton" and Quicksilver makes you look cheap because it's cheap. I bought it at the beginning of the school year and short sold it when it first snowed. (Snow was my catalyst). 

The stocks that I bought as investments are Cree and life-point hospitals. I bought Cree lightbulb company as an investment because we will forever need lightbulbs and the more energy efficient the lightbulbs are the more successful the company is. Cree was me of the many lightbulb companies that bettered themselves by finding more energy efficient way to use lightbulbs. No one wants to live by candlelight anymore, so in my thinking lightbulbs are a safe investment. My other investment is life-point hospitals. Hospitals will never go away. We invest our lives into hospitals, if we get sick, we go to the hospital, when people get to old, we send them to the hospital, to hopefully get treated. When you need a shot or surgery you need a hospital. Life-point hospital is based out of Florida and California and helps many people around the community and really anyone who walks into the hospital is welcome.   

October 20%

I did get what was set out to be done in the month of October. My goal was to get at least two stories and I got exactly two and videoed and set up on youtube. the only problem I encountered was the Morgan couldn't make the meeting so I had to meet with the two elderly alone, which was fine. Another problem I had was in the video there isn't perfect sound like I wished to have and there is no real 'video' just the sound. My goal by the end of November is to have the video set up and done and posted publicly on youtube and hope fully get at least 10 views that aren't all mine.

Trade vs. Investment

A trade is a short term deal (less then 6 months) that you take and give back. Its more of a short sell to gain money, but you have potential to lose money also. You don't want to sell  your trade until the catalyst (certain event that you bought the product for) is complete. An investment is a long term deal (more than 6 months) that you plan to keep. When the sell on the product goes down you either buy more or you wait. In an investment you don't want to sell your product until it has gone up 15% because then you can potentially make money.

Candy, Candy, Everywhere

When I got to free enterprise we all had to leave our backpacks coats and anything else that would potentially be a distraction outside the class room. We were instructed to go through the doors only when he told us and advised us to have half go through one door and the other half go through the other door. Hearing this we all got excited and began to decide which door we should go through. As we all waited anticipating what might be on the other side of those closed doors. When Kapptie came to the other door and opened it he then announced that we could all go inside. It was a mad dash into the doors. The room was dark and there were screens projected onto the wall of people saying different things and calling out different parts of stocks. I looked on the ground and seen candy and Monopoly money scattered everywhere. Boom. It was like breaking open a big piñata. All of us students were in a mad dash to get the most. Yet, we didn't know why or if we needed the most or what we needed. We were all just grabbing and stuffing it anywhere we could. Once all of the candy and money was off the ground we all picked a place where would be our 'home base'. Everyone was confused and didn't know what to do. It was then that Kapptie announced that he would be making announcements every two minutes. He wrote different numbers under different candies up on the board. Still we were all confused. After the first few announcements I realized that there wasn't just money that was paper there was hints. I read all of my hints and got rid of them. Not realizing some of the hints were good, but thinking they were all bad. It was chaotic and confusing when some people started realizing what to do. I stood still confused and unsure of what to do until the very end. I was making trades and I though what trades I was doing would potentially benefit me, but in the end I don't think they did. I really should have stuck with what I had to begin with, even if some of the candies had defaulted. When all was said and done everyone counted up what they had and got their totals. I definitely didn't win. My total was around 1,000-2,000. I learned that I never want to be thrown into the pool without a little guidance along the way, and that I will never be a stock person.

20% Project

For my 20% time on Fridays I've decided to do something to give back to the elderly in our community and to benifit our young generation with the knowledge of them. The idea is to not forget the elderly people in our community and remind us that they are important. To do this project we (Morgan Ley and I) are going to go to the Heartland and see if there is any residents that would like to share their story. Once we find someone we will listen to what they have to say, bring it back to school and share it with Mr. Kapptie so we could set up a time that they could come in and talk to possibly 10 (plus or minus) kids at a time about their story or what they have to say.

For the September month I picked out this project and called my CNA instructor Jenny Segura who works in the nursing home. She told me that I should call Kaci Dillworth at the Heartland and she will give me further instuctions and might know of someone who would be willing. I called Kaci and she said she would get back to me and that she knows of someone who might be willing to share their information. I haven't gotten a call back but I'm going to give her a call back and see if tomorrow would be a good day to set up an appointment with some people to hear their stories and see what Mr. Kapptie thinks and possibly set up a time for them to come in and share their stories with us.

For October I hope to have at least one story that I have heard and hopefully they have shared.

Plans For After High School

I plan to go to college at the Sheridan Community College and become a second grade teacher. My current job is being a CNA which i could do summer work as a CNA and be a full time teacher in the 'teaching season'. I could get a job just about anywhere. I would really enjoy living in a big city such as New York ($35,000 one year) or Las Vegas ($299-699 per month), yet i plan to live here before I graduate. I will pay my way through school with the money that I've saved from working. I honestly don't plan on getting rid of my 1999 Dodge Neon until after I have a steady job, which will be after college, and possibly more time after college I'll still be driving it around. If i had to chose a car though I would choose a 2008 Honda Civic ($10,000- 19,000).
From my reserch I've learned that buying a new car wouldn't be an option for me because the cost of living and the cost of paying of a car would be to expensive and wouldn't fit in my budget.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130612133527AAv24J4
http://www.bing.com/search?q=cost+of+living+in+New+York&src=IE-SearchBox&FORM=IE8SRC
http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/overview.aspx?year=2008&make=Honda&model=Civic&trimid=-1