Taxes
What services do taxes fund?
Public roads, schools, city management, etc
What is investing?
Buying something now, hoping that it will increase in monetary value over time, and then selling it to make more money than you bought it for.
What is budgeting?
Calculating your monthly expenses and income to see how you can better spend your money.
What is capital?
Wealth in the form of money and assets that you have access to (clothes, car, etc). It could also be personal capital, like your family and friends.
What is a credit card?
A card that lets you borrow money that you have to pay off.
What are the different types of taxes?
Social Security, Federal, State, Income, etc
What is "The Stock Market"?
An online "market" where you can buy and sell pieces of companies to invest in them.
What are some major monthly expenses?
Rent, groceries, utility bills (water, gas, electricity), car payments, student loan payments, insurance, wifi, etc.
Who owns capital?
Private individuals (not the government!)
What is a credit score?
A score calculated by your financial decisions that can show a bank or a loaner how credible you are with paying back your loans.
What is a W2?
A form that your employer gives you that shows how much money you made and how much money you paid in taxes with that income.
What are stocks?
Pieces of companies that you can purchase to give money to that company in hopes that they will do well economically so you can sell that stock later after it has increased in value.
How do you calculate your budget?
Monthly income - monthly expenses
What is capitalism?
An economic system where companies and individuals compete to make the most money off of product, usually through means of corruption and exploitation of others.
What is a loan?
Money that you borrow from a bank or loaners that accrues interest over the time that it takes to pay it back.
What is a 1040?
What are bonds?
You give a company/the government a loan that makes interest on the debt that they owe you.
Get a roommate, spend less on groceries, don't go out on the town as much, etc
What are the pros to capitalism?
Companies are privately owned, not by the government, and the constant competition breeds innovation.
What types of things will bring up/down your credit score?
Paying your credit card off in full each month vs only paying the minimum amount. Paying/not paying full loan payments, taking out multiple credit cards at once.
Who doesn't pay their due taxes?
Elon Musk/big corporations and billionaries
What is the difference between a Roth IRA and a 401K?
Both are retirement savings accounts, but a 401K gets taxed after you pull the money out, while a Roth IRA gets taxed on the money that you initially put in.
How can you increase your income?
Get a side hustle, another job, petsit for a friend!
How does capitalism exploit people?
Lots of companies hire workers in different countries with lower/no minimum wages so that they don't have to pay people as much to make their products. These working conditions are often dangerous as well.
What is interest?
A percentage of the money that you either invested (good) or paid on a loan (bad) that will accrue over time.