Final Reflection - Connor Kissack

Connor Kissack

Dr. Ott

Personal Finance

17 January 2020

Personal Finance Reflection

My time being in the Personal Finance J-Term has been absolutely incredible. I started the course with no knowledge of finance and have now come out of it with enough knowledge of the best way to use your money with it having a positive affect on my future. The books we read were astonishing as they talked about the best way to manage one's money and the principles of how to use one's own money. This is exactly why I came into the class; to become financially independent and know the correct way to manage money. Throughout my life, when I am given money, I immediately spend it with no in-between thought on how it would be better for me to saving the money granted to me. That habit has been completely changed as I have had a realization that I will be better off if I saved my equity. As the J-Term has continued on, we have done multiple projects which have been eventful. We had projects that carried on our own interest that we had in our class. Mine being a project about the stock market and how it works. We also set up a finance game called "The Game of Life" which projected what our net worth would be in the future if we took certain projections. We then used our spreadsheet to play the actual game where we rolled the dice and saw what number it landed on. With the number in mind, we had another spreadsheet where it showed what event would happen that corresponded to the number. We also had a project where we had to find a fourplex and calculate the total cost of it. We used this to see if we could in turn make a profit off of the other roommates living in it. I learned a lot from both of these experiences as it taught me about real estate and the other gave me a projection of what my life might look like if I took these certain precautions. After a long day of some of the days of learning about personal finance, we watched films about people switching roles, believing in what is right, and a greedy man who comes to his senses and learns about the importance of life. These films have taught me that money may be important, but it isn't so important that I should only have my mind on how much money I have at the present time. I am thankful that this experience has taught me smarter ways for me to manage my money. This may be my first J-Term experience, but it certainly has had a lifetime lasting impact on me.