Question:

In this third week of Finance for Everyone: Decisions, we have considered the side effects and repercussions of financial markets.

As you begin to apply your growing understanding of the broader context of finance, what financial decisions are you considering for your own life? Furthermore, if you were to share your developing opinions about financial issues with those around you, what would be your most significant points? What would you recommend to others who are looking to make decisions? Overall, what financial ideas and issues do you wish to communicate about with those on a local, national, or global scale?

Regardless of your key insights, we hope you share them online. Post your key learnings, insights, and/or opinions to your learning portfolio or twitter (and make sure to use the hashtag #F4E in your tweets)! You are free to choose the subject of your learning portfolio blog post or tweet; this way, you can focus on topics that catch your interest the most.

Below, submit the link to the tweet or post you’ve written this week, and please go back to your Course Connections discussion post from this week and add it in there as well!

Answer:

The financial decisions I’m considering is how to earn more with what I have right now. I don’t have a lot of money as someone in her twenties but I think it’s the right time to start making financial decisions. I’m still thinking if it’s a nice idea to get a place for my own. Also, I’m thinking if getting a master degree a good choice for me.

I think the most significant point would be the formula to calculate interest rate also how compound interest can change everything. It’s such a huge difference as well when it’s compounded yearly or monthly or daily.

I would recommend everyone to look into how the compound interest can make a significant difference towards what you earn/pay. It’s very crucial.

The financial idea that I would like to communicate globally is how almost all money is controlled by 1% of people and how their decisions can affect trillions of people. The fact that many governments are in dangerous financial situation is also something worth noting. I’m surprised to know that the financial situation of US is so bad that one-third of its assets are based on student loans.

Reflect:

During the Income Inequality lecture, Arshad refers to the Oxfam report An Economy for the 1%.

For this reflective activity, first think about what the disparity between the 1% and 99% means to you and view this TED gallery by Helen Walters on what inequality means to an international group of artists, designers, photographers and activists.

Then, find or take an image that meaningfully represents inequity as you see it.

Discuss:

In this discussion thread, upload or post a link to your photo and provide a short explanation of why you selected this image (feel free to use Twitter’s 140 character limit as a guide for the length of your explanation, since this will make it easier to tweet out later!).

Connect:

If you use Twitter, we’d love it if you tweet your selected photo and explanation! You can tweet it to us at @FinanceMooc and/or using the hashtags #Inequity #F4E.

Reminder: If you’ve decided to keep a portfolio to document and showcase your learning, make sure you include this reflective activity in your learning portfolio!Participation is optional

This is the picture came to my mind when it comes to inequality. It’s a famous picture taken during Vietnam War. Inequalities of power between soldiers and citizens, grownups and kids, Vietnam and America, etc., are shown within this single picture. I feel sad seeing this photo every time.

#Inequity #F4E

Question:

In this second week of Finance for Everyone: Decisions, we have explored the flow of money, focusing on how good ideas are transformed into value in a functioning market system, as well as the various types of financial markets.

Consider your evolving understanding and level of comfort with finance. Do you find your confidence in engaging with finance is growing? Do you feel more comfortable discussing financial concepts with family or community members than before taking this course? Have you begun evaluate your own financial decisions? What are some ideas to help you and your fellow learners increase your confidence and understanding?

Regardless of your key insights, we hope you share them online. Post your key learnings, insights, and/or opinions to your learning portfolio or twitter (and make sure to use the hashtag #F4E in your tweets)! You are free to choose the subject of your learning portfolio blog post or tweet; this way, you can focus on topics that catch your interest the most.

Below, submit the link to the tweet or post you’ve written this week, and please go back to your Course Connections discussion post from this week and add it in there as well!

Answer:

I have learned a lot about finance after taking this course. Though there are still a lot of things I don’t know in finance, I do find myself understanding financial concepts better. The formulas are somewhat complicated for me, who is always better in texts than numbers. I got some questions in quizzes wrong but there is no explanation to how to get the right answers, that’s frustrating to me. I wish I could have more explanation on how to get to the right answers. The ideas introduced are quite new, I feel like I can understand most of it when I’m taking the lessons but I find it difficult to remember as everything just goes away like a water flow. Still, the ideas introduced are pretty cool that do affect how I see about finance. I like that it’s a very informative course but just that what I learned doesn’t stick well. Would be nice if there are more extra practices I can do with explanation to answers except quizzes, so I can remember what I learned better. Some supplementary readings or exercises seem to be nice add-on.

#F4E

Just want to make a post about the questions I don’t understand. Can’t find answers. Don’t want to be stuck with them forever so just make a record first to move on to the next assignment. Maybe there are answers later.

1. How much would you have to deposit into your savings account per month if you earn 10% per annum, with monthly compounding, if you want to have $1,000,000 in the bank after 5 years?
   Answer: $12,913.71

Reflect:

For this activity, first view this article and scroll through the images.

After thinking about what these photos signify, take a photo of something that is very valuable to you.

Discuss:

In this discussion thread, post your own picture using the photo upload function, and then write a brief reflection about the photograph. Building on the framework outlined in the 3 Important Aspects of Financial Decisions lecture, consider the following questions when writing your reflection:

• Motivation: What motivated the decision that led to you owning your most valuable thing?
• Money flow: What markets are at play in your life? How might this compare to the markets that are at play in the lives of the individuals whose possession(s) were captured in the photos shown in the article?
• Repercussions: Thinking ahead to content that will be expanded upon in Week 3, can you identify any repercussions of the financial decisions that allowed you to purchase your most valuable thing?

Answer:

[a laptop image here]

Motivation: My old laptop was super slow and delayed a lot, so I bought this laptop to replace the old one.

Money flow: Commodity market and financial market. I think the markets involved are more or less the same? The world finance is in an interconnected web anyway.

Repercussions: I saved up money I got from part-time job so I could buy the laptop.

In this first week of Finance for Everyone: Decisions, we have begun to explore the financial systems that surround us and our communities, and which connect us to people all over the world.

Reflect on your learning and engagement thus far. What are the takeaway messages that have resonated with you? Are there local or global issues that are newly grabbing your interest with your growing understanding of the broader context of finance? Perhaps at this stage you have more questions than answers. That’s okay! There are many individuals in your communities and around the world with similar questions.

Regardless of your key insights, we encourage you to share them online in your social networks. Post your key learnings, insights, and/or opinions to your learning portfolio or twitter (and make sure to use the hashtag #F4E in your tweets)! You are free to choose the subject of your learning portfolio blog post or tweet; this way, you can focus on topics that catch your interest the most.

Below, submit the link to the tweet or post you’ve written this week, and please go back to the discussion post from this week and add it in there as well!

Answer:

The takeaway messages that have resonated with me are that I have to think like the owners. Everyone is a stakeholder of something but individual thoughts might not be able to influence decision makers. So it’s important to think like the decision makers. Also, I like the idea that there are only 2 kinds of money, my money and your money. It makes the money world sound so much simpler and clearer.

The local issue that grabs my interest is about small banks are gaining a bigger share of the Dutch mortgage market. The global issue that grabs my interest is about Britain’s LSE delivers ‘defining’ $27 billion Refinitiv deal in data drive.

The issues that matter to me include housing, retirement plan, investment strategy.

In the 3 Important Aspects of Financial Decisions lecture, Arshad referenced a variety of stakeholders and stakeholder interests integral to financial decisions:

• Banker
• Shareholder
• Bondholder
• Lender
• Borrower
• Employee
• Employer
• Community citizen
• Government official
• Manager
• Activist

Answer the questions below in this discussion thread:

Part 1: Which role(s) do you identify with most? The least? Which role(s) do you support the interests of the most with your current spending and saving habits? Are these stakeholders aligned with your interests? Which stakeholders would you like to support?

Part 2: Choose a local, national, or global financial issue – one you can find in your newspaper, online news source, or is represented in popular culture (tv, movies, etc.). Regarding this issue, which of these stakeholder roles are benefitting the most? The least?

Part 3: Considering your answers to Parts 1 & 2 of this activity, brainstorm ways that you can re-adjust your actions and decisions so that your interests are better aligned with those stakeholders you want to support.

Answers:

Part 1: I identify with shareholder, bondholder, employee and community citizen the most. The least are banker, lender, employer, government official and manager. With my current spending and saving habits, I support the interests of shareholder, employee and community citizen. These stakeholders are also who I am so they do align with my interests. I would like to support stakeholders that I identify with.

Part 2: The financial issue I found is “Small banks are gaining a bigger share of the Dutch mortgage market”. Lender and community citizens should have the most benefits.

Part 3: It’s the mortgage market so as a community citizen I should already be aligned with the stakeholders. Perhaps I can invest in small banks to help them rise their values in the market to help more citizens?

My answer: money, credit, debit, loan, assets, liabilities, investments, retirement planning, insurance, stock market, exchange, currency, bond.

Most common words from students: money, profit, value, prosperity, wealth, riches, power, banks, crisis, risk, greed and bankruptcy

Teacher: We explore finance from the view of decisions and processes that allocate money for the most productive use. That is, getting and spending money to achieve underlying goals.

I’m interested in taking the course because I want to improve my personal finance skills. Being a student from the arts stream, I never really understand the language of finance and have been making poor decisions. I would like to change that before it’s too late.

I’m culturally from Hong Kong and geographically from Amsterdam at the moment.

A recent headline in the media that may have a financial impact on your community is “Small banks are gaining a bigger share of the Dutch mortgage market”.

The link: https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2019/08/small-banks-are-gaining-a-bigger-share-of-the-dutch-mortgage-market/