Informed Consumer Project
As we near the end of the year, we are tying math concepts together and finding ways to apply them to our futures as young adults. This project was a great way for us to see relevance in the work we were doing as well as get practice with this real life research. We were given a list of topics to further focus on: budgeting, loans, understanding credit, credit cards, insurance, banking, investing, retirement or a financial topic of choice. After my internship, I felt fairly informed on most of the topics, but I realized that I didn't know very much about life insurance. Thus began my research process. During this research I found that there are a couple different type of life insurance and so my research developed further. This project really brought my awareness to the mathematical concepts behind "adult" issues. Also, I deepened my interest in the financial concepts that I will need to be informed about in the future.
Below is my visual for the project as well as six sample problems regarding life insurance and actuaries.
Below is my visual for the project as well as six sample problems regarding life insurance and actuaries.
Price of College Project
For this project, we were using our math skills to discover the true price of college. We researched colleges that we might want to attend and then from there, narrowed down our choices to two colleges. For a challenge extension, we researched a community college as well. The most important part of the project was collecting data regarding the college tuition and tuition and fees. From this point, everything else relied on these numbers. With the tuition, we predicted the cost of college for the four years we would be attending. Then we also studied repayment plans and used the four most common plans (standard fixed, standard graduated, extended fixed, extended graduated) to determine the cost of college after we have paid back our student loans. We also did a cost benefit analysis as the last part of our project where we determined the costs and benefits of attending college to decide if college is worth it in the end. I found that college is worth it because in the long run, I will be earning more than I will be spending. This was a comforting fact and I was thankful for this project because it revealed that I don't need to be scared of college.
Mathematical Computations
Cost Benefit Analysis
Excel Spreadsheet
college_research.xlsx | |
File Size: | 53 kb |
File Type: | xlsx |