About the Author
Tim Ranzetta
Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.
Question: What's Your Tolerance for Risk?
One of the most fundamental questions when creating an investment plan is assessing how one feels about risk, or to put it more specifically, how does one feel about losing money. If you feel the need to check your investment portfolio every hour or so fearing an incipient crash, well you might not do well with a 100% stock portfolio. Similarly if you are a buy and hold (and forget) type, and you understand the value of long-term investing and bought more stock in 2008 when the stock market...
Question: Should You Take that Pay Raise If It Bumps You To Higher Tax Bracket?
Answer: Yes.
Apparently this is one of the biggest misconceptions that folks have about our tax system. Marketplace.org takes it from here (3:38 audio):
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Looking for more NGPF Tax Resources? Go To Tax Page to see tax resources including lessons, activities and questions of the day. ...
Activity Idea: 36 Obvious Investing Truths
I am an avid reader of Ben Carlson's Blog A Wealth of Common Sense for a good reason; he takes this complex topic of investing which vexes many an educator and makes it accessible and simpler for all of us to understand. His recent post, 36 Obvious Investing Truths is a great example of this common sense approach to investing as he distills his years of experience into a set of "truths." Here are a few examples:
1. If you need to spend your money in a relatively short period of time it...
Question: What Are Workers Most Satisfied About Their Work?
Before throwing this chart up on the screen, you might ask students who work what they are most and least satisfied about when it comes to their jobs. Then they will have a comparison set to compare with the chart below.
Interesting survey data from the Conference Board (hat tip to the Big Picture Blog):
Questions:
How did your answers compare to this survey data?
Are there any topics you had on your answer that didn't appear on the survey (e.g., compensation)?
Overall,...
Top 5 on NGPF Blog
By Tim Ranzetta
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Sep 18, 2017
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Generosity, Identity Theft, Career, Economics, Employment, Compound Interest, Entrepreneurship
Here are the recent posts that have been attracting the most eyeballs:
Steal of the Century: Equifax Hacked
Looking for more on this event? Check out this list of links I came across today.
Let's Pick A Side Hustle
Infographic listing 25 "side hustles" which can make for an interesting classroom discussion
How to Set Up A Mock Career Fair in Your School
The NGPF team participated in this event at Carlmont High School in Belmont, CA. Thanks for John Rowe for inviting us into the...
What I'm Reading...
Interesting articles I stumbled across this week:
Diversification sucks (Bason Asset Management)
We all know investors are supposed to diversify their investments. It's really hard in practice though because you accept that not all of your investments will be top performers. This article provides the psychology behind what makes diversification so difficult.
If You Want to Feel Better, Spend Money on Saving Time (Wall Street Journal)
"People feel happier when they pay to save time...
Career Advice: Why Is It Important to Treat Every Customer With Respect?
Guest post from NGPF Fellow, Brian Johnson
It was the middle of the Christmas shopping season. I was the warehouse supervisor at Best Buy. At the time we were a new store to the market and the “Grab-and-Go” philosophy was a fresh approach to providing consumer electronics. But our success was also a curse. The distribution centers were shipping product to us daily and we still struggled with out of stock issues.
As a warehouse supervisor, I didn’t...
NGPF Podcast: Back To School Special With Educator Brian Page of Reading High School (Reading, OH)
It's our back to school special with Brian Page, educator at Reading High School in Reading, Ohio. It's becoming a rite of passage on the NGPF podcast with Brian making his third appearance to discuss his summer activities (he did some great advocacy work for us) and the new honors course he developed. He shares some of his favorite activities and how a new book has made him rethink how personal finance should be taught. Oh, and listen closely to hear how a cologne purchase brought happiness to...
Three Videos To Engage Your Students
Here at NGPF we are constantly on the lookout for videos that your students will enjoy. We also get a lot of help from our friends too. Here are three that cover popular topics of student loans, health insurance and careers (hat tip to Jessica for posting on the NGPF internal Slack and for Danielle coming up with questions for career video):
American's Student Debt Crisis: Jessie's Story (Consumer Reports, 13:37): Thanks to Charles Kafoglis for sharing this with us!
What new facts about...
Steal of the Century: Equifax Hacked
You can't imagine a more enticing target to hack than one of the three credit reporting agencies. As you have no doubt heard at this point, over 1/2 of America has had the "crown jewels" of their financial history stolen. This will be a story that will unfold over months not days as Congress is sure to haul executives up to the Hill for hearings to learn a few things from company executives including:
Why did it take months for the company to let the public know about this hack?
Why did the...
Who Invests in the Stock Market (By State)?
By Tim Ranzetta
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Sep 08, 2017
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Stocks, Research, Current Events, Question of the Day, Chart of the Week
Hat tip to Big Picture Blog which had a post from a few St. Louis Fed researchers showing how stock market participation varies by state even when taking into account income levels:
Here's a chart showing how participation levels vary based on income level and highlights the state with the highest participation (Connecticut) and lowest participation levels (Mississippi):
Questions for students:
Average household income in the U.S. is around $50,000. What percentage of...
To Extend The Warranty or Not To Extend The Warranty; That Is The Question
Thanks to NGPF Fellow, Brian Johnson for this recent post on this fundamental question about a popular form of insurance:
This story actually begins in 2000 when flat screen TVs were starting to replace the big tube TVs. In purchasing my first flat screen TV I did the unthinkable…I bought an extended warranty plan! What I received was an education and confidence that would save me money in the future.
Sure enough, that TV went out with about two months left on the...
Let's Pick A Side Hustle!
A great infographic from Quid Corner listing 25 "side hustles" that your entrepreneurial minded students might want to consider. Since the infographic is so ginormous, I'll put the questions ahead of it:
Questions:
In your own words, what is a "side hustle?"
Have you ever had a "side hustle?" What was it and was it a positive experience?
Can you identify one "side hustle" from each of the five categories in the infographic below that you could do succesfully?
Pick one of the five that you...
What Were The Top 20 Best Selling Toys on Amazon in May?
Answer: Toys related to or similar in nature to fidget spinners.
From the Economist:
The fad started in America in February. By May, all 20 of the top-selling toys on Amazon, an online retailer, were either fidget spinners or fidget cubes, a close relation. There have been many such crazes—who can forget the great loom-band mania of 2014?—but none that spread as fast. Frédérique Tutt, an analyst of the global toy market for NPD, a data company, says that it...
NGPF Podcast: Tim Talks to FitMoney Executive Director, Robin Kahn
I'm excited to share this conversation that I had recently with Robin Kahn, the executive director at FitMoney. FitMoney recently celebrated their one year anniversary and Robin shares the progress that has been made at her non-profit as well as how her business career prepared her for this role. She describes the lessons learned over the past twelve months and the the three core concepts that she integrates into the personal finance curriculum she has developed. Listen to this...
