Personal Finance - Tuesday

      We started this Tuesday off with presentations from the returning students on topics of their interest. I presented first on wills, trusts, and behavioral finance; I spoke on the importance of all of these and how they relate to our personal finance lives. Francesco followed with his presentation on fraud. He began by connecting to The Big Short, which we watched yesterday, through talking on the legality of some of the actions of the banks and big corporations mentioned in the movie. Francesco went on to talk about different forms of fraud, how it can happen at any time, and how to not fall for scams. Next up was Asher who gave an in-depth presentation on bonds, the different types, ratings, and uses. Understanding bonds is extremely important especially as it relates to the stock market and portfolio diversification and Asher explained all of it very well. Last but not least, Clark presented on options trading. He explained what options are, the related terminology, and why people trade options. Options are by far one of the most complex and difficult topics to learn, however, I think Clark did a great job introducing them to the class. All of the presentations went well and the class certainly learned a lot! After a quick break, we dove into a seminar on our books and asked numerous questions on both technical/ factual topics and philosophical topics, for instance, does "money buy happiness"? We talked about having values, thinking about money in terms of life energy, and the power of money. Our seminars are a great way to answer factual questions and pose open questions to discuss. Following lunch, Mr. Ying, an entrepreneur who started out as a doctor, came and talked through his experience, how he found his passion, and how he got to where he is now. He gave all of us insightful knowledge and some high-quality advice. Mr. Ying was able to relate his story to us and he showed us where hard work and curiosity can take you. The class was extremely fortunate to be able to hear from Mr. Ying and we learned a lot about what it takes to be a successful person. Near the end of the day, new students played the Game of Life. They had to roll dice to get a scenario and depending on that scenario they adjusted their income, expenses and net worth of their game accordingly. The goal of this game is to show that anything could happen to you during your life and you should be financially prepared. While dice were being thrown, returning students read their books of choice trying their best to soak up as much financial knowledge as possible. Today was eventful and filled with many learning opportunities as we are investing our time and effort into our financial future!