Opportunity cost is the how you would spend your time or money if you chose your favorite alternative to the choice you are making. For example, I am tempted to add the extra sports package to my Sling TV account, but it costs an additional $11 per month. $11 doesn’t seem like much, but if put into my retirement account instead, $11 per month is $6,000-8,000 in future value. Using the 4% rule, that’s about $300 in future annual income, or about $25 per month in retirement income. So an $11 per month now costs me $25 per month later. That’s a heavy opportunity cost that one might not consider before making a seemingly small financial decision.
Continue reading “A Christmas Carol Is a Lesson in Opportunity Cost”Tag: opportunity cost
10 Things I Learned From Teaching a Personal Finance Class
2016-2017 has been one of the craziest years in my teaching career. My principal texted me last July to ask me to teach Personal Financial Responsibility, a course encouraged, but not required, for high school students by the state of Indiana. I accepted the challenge and immediately delved into learning as much as I could to help my students. Nearly a year later, after teaching two sections of the course, I have learned a great deal about finance and about myself. In this article, I would like to share with you what I have learned this year.
Continue reading “10 Things I Learned From Teaching a Personal Finance Class”
The Case Against Emergency Funds
Most financial advisors will probably tell you to establish an emergency savings account. I personally am a fan of the emergency fund strategy, but it is different for every person, depending on what kinds of risks they have in their lives. I talk with my finance classes about different types of risk we are exposed to:
- Concentration risk
- Income risk
- Inflation risk
- Interest rate risk
- Liquidity risk
- Personal risk
Emergency savings can help with some of these risks, like a medical emergency or job loss, but they lose buying power to inflation, and they have an opportunity cost. The question is which of the risk factors above carries the most weight for you. If you work in a highly volatile industry, income risk may be a major concern. If you are a contracted teacher like me, maybe not so much. This is why it is important to “play devil’s advocate” and make arguments against conventional wisdom in finance. Let’s examine the argument against establishing the infamous emergency savings account. Continue reading “The Case Against Emergency Funds”
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