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description= More than 850 in-depth, continually updated tutorials on the fundamentals of personal finance, investments and economics — supplemented with illustrations, charts, and color-coded examples, and formatted for quick comprehension. Articles are written and continually updated by William C. Spaulding.;
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uyer s equilibrium from the market price p m to a higher price p b at lower quantities likewise because the seller receives a lower price p s for his product less of it is supplied which moves the seller s equilibrium down the supply curve to a lower price and quantity the amount the government receives equals the tax which equals the buyer s price minus the seller s price times the quantity of the transaction whether for goods or services tax revenue tax quantity the area of the light purple rectangle in the graph the tax revenue collected by the government the area of the dark purple triangle the economic welfare lost to taxation p b price buyers pay demand is reduced because buyers must pay a higher price because of the tax p m market price without taxes p s price sellers receive q e the quantity supplied without the tax q t the reduced quantity supplied because of the tax from duration and convexity with illustrations and formulas note that the price yield curve is convex and that the modified duration is the slope of the tangent line to a particular market yield and that the discrepancy between the price yield curve and the modified duration increases with greater changes in the interest rate it can easily be seen that modified duration changes as the yield changes because it is obvious that the slope of the line changes with different yields the gap between the modified duration and the convex price yield curve is the convexity adjustment which as can be easily seen is greater on the upside than on the downside svg images many of the images use a format called scalable vector graphics or svg which are defined mathematically so they are usually much smaller than raster graphics such as png gif or jpeg images since they are constructed mathematically they can be adjusted to any size without losing any resolution from phones to high resolution monitors moreover they look a lot better than the rasterized equivalent the 2 images above are both svg images however svg is only suitable for simple graphics and illustrations such as diagrams more complex images such as photographs uses the jpeg format color coded examples for more complex examples i use color coding to show the interrelationship of different parts making it easier to follow and faster to comprehend from child tax credit example calculating the child tax credit for incomes above the phaseout amount ava is a single parent with 2 dependent children and she earned 90 020 for the tax year because her income is 15 050 more than the phaseout amount of 75 000 for a head of household she must reduce the 2 000 child tax credit that she would otherwise be entitled to by 90 020 75 000 15 020 which is rounded up to 16 000 since the 20 portion is a fraction of 1 000 16 000 1 000 16 16 50 800 child tax credit 2 1 000 800 1 200 note that although she only earned 20 more than 90 000 she must round her income up to 91 000 which is why the 50 is multiplied by 16 rather than 15 here s another example from bond pricing and accrued interest illustrated with examples where color coding facilitates following the example and also illustrates how to use certain tools such as microsoft excel in doing some of the examples examples using microsoft office excel for calculating bond prices and discounts the following listed variables where they apply will be used for each of the example calculations that follow for a 10 year bond originally issued in 1 1 2008 with a par value of 1 000 settlement date 3 31 2008 maturity date 12 31 2017 issue date 1 1 2008 coupon rate 6 yield to maturity 8 price per 100 of face value 21 99 redemption 100 frequency 2 for most coupon bonds basis 1 actual actual price of a bond with a yield to maturity of 8 bond price price 3 31 2008 12 31 2017 0 06 0 08 100 2 1 86 62092 866 21 the discount price of a zero coupon bond with a 1 000 par value yielding 8 price discount pricedisc 3 31 2008 12 31 2017 0 06 0 08 100 1 21 99288 219 93 the interest rate of a discounted zero coupon bond paying 1 000 at maturity but that is now selling for 219 90 interest rate of bond discount disc 3 31 2008 12 31 2017 21 99 100 1 0 080003 8 note that the pricedisc function value has been rounded with the results used in the disc function to verify the results 21 99 219 90 for a bond with a 1 000 par value pricemat calculates the prices of securities that only pay interest at maturity what is the price of a negotiable 90 day cd originally issued for 100 000 on 3 1 2008 with a nominal yield of 8 a current yield of 6 and a settlement date of 4 1 2008 using the microsoft excel date function with format date year month day to calculate the maturity date by adding 90 days to the issue date and choosing the banker s year of 360 days by omitting its value from the formula yields the following results market price of cd pricemat 4 1 2008 date 2008 3 1 90 3 1 2008 0 08 0 06 100 3181 per 100 of face value 1 000 100 318 10 other special types of content i use real world examples to illustrate how the concepts are applied to the real world to increase understanding both of the material and of the real world such as this example from will execution the common law elements of the wills act formalities real word examples testamentary intent clauses of famous wills last will and testament of elvis a presley i elvis a presley a resident and citizen of shelby county tennessee being of sound mind and disposing memory do hereby make publish and declare this instrument to be my last will and testament hereby revoking any and all wills and codicils by me at any time heretofore made last will and testament of leona m helmsley i leona m helmsley a resident of the state city and county of new york declare this to be my last will and testament i also include alerts about special situations that readers should be particurally aware such as this one about credit ratings on bonds from credit rating agencies from the complete introduction to bonds investor alert note that credit ratings are not foolproof enron had an investment grade rating right up until it declared bankruptcy and worldcom up to 3 months before filing for bankruptcy it s also a good idea to check all the credit rating agencies about a particular issuer because different agencies have different criteria and different strengths and weaknesses in rating bond issuers many articles also have notes and history to point out certain facts or to illustrate how things were or came to be such as these 2 examples from credit scores sometimes payments are not made because they are disputed if the dispute is not resolved then you have a right to add a statement in your credit report limited to 100 words explaining why you refuse to pay note however that your statement will not protect your credit score since explanations cannot be quantified so the credit scoring algorithm cannot take your statement into account it will however take in account that you have missed a payment fannie mae starts to use trended credit data to underwrite consumers in mid 2016 fannie mae started using trended credit data from all 3 credit reporting agencies equifax experian and transunion for all mortgage applications the trended credit data focuses on credit data from the past 30 months showing not only if payments were made on time but whether the borrowers carried balances from month to month paid off the balances in full or at least paid more than the minimum studies by transunion have shown that consumers who carry balances or who only pay the minimum balance are a greater risk than those who pay in full transunion estimates that trended credit data will put more consumers from 12 to more than 21 in the so called super prime risk tier who are offered the best credit terms source a focus on credit history for mortgage approvals the new york times or this one from united states treasury securities bills notes bonds treasury inflation protected securities tips and strips quick facts on the national debt the us debt is financed mostly by selling u s treasury securities the united states has carried debt since the american revolution only during the presidency of andrew jackson has the united states been truly debt free as of the end of march 2016 the us debt slightly exceeded 13 4 trillion you often see in publications that the debt exceeded 19 trillion but more than 5 trillion of that debt is what the government owes to other government agencies such as the social security trust fund the annual deficit is the amount the government takes in taxes minus the amount it spends during the year a budget surplus occurs when tax collections exceed expenditures for the year the only budget surplus that has occurred in recent times was during the presidency of bill clinton when the government started to tax the rich more since then beginning with the bush presidency taxes on the wealthy have been greatly reduced resulting in annual deficits that have greatly increased exacerbated by the iraqi and afghanistan wars and by the great recession of 2007 to 2009 the debt limit is the amount that the treasury could borrow without asking congress before 1917 the treasury had to ask congress every time it wanted to increase the debt since then the treasury must ask congress to authorize more debt only if the debt is expected to exceed the debt ceiling an annual deficit increases the national debt while a budget surplus decreases it to see the absolute latest statistics and to see how quickly the us debt is growing check out u s national debt clock real time in march 2018 the us passed the 21 trillion mark and will continue to grow even more rapidly because of the tax cuts passed by donald trump and the republican congress at the end of 2017 source national debt while this site focuses on how things work it also has many tips for using the information in real life such as the following from credit scores additional tips and resources for improving your credit score get a free credit report at annualcreditreport com every 4 months by requesting a report from only 1 credit reporting agency at a time a good free way to monitor your credit report some credit cards offer free credit scores that are updated at least monthly for instance discover card provides a free fico score based on your credit information held by transunion even if the credit card does not provide a fico score any score can be used to monitor changes in your credit information by checking for monthly changes in your score credit scores often change by 10 to 20 points during the month but if you notice larger changes in your score during a time when there was no significant credit event you may want to check the credit report from the agency on which the score is based for errors or for possible identity theft as of november 2015 you can upload supporting documents such as paid bills or canceled checks to support your credit dispute source fixing credit report errors online gets added heft the new york times file a credit reporting complaint with the consumer financial protection bureau sample letter for disputing errors on your credit report with information providers see also disputing errors on credit reports by the ftc if you want to send a letter to the cras that may lead to legal action then send it as certified mail with return receipt i also provide a little bit of humor such as i m living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be living apart e e cummings and i include news items march 9 2015 update the credit bureaus use automated dispute resolution processes to correct errors reported by consumers which is why mistakes in their credit reports frequently go uncorrected in their settlement with the new york attorney general s office with changes being phased in over the next 3 years the 3 credit bureaus will provide specially trained employees to resolve disputes additionally the credit bureaus will establish a 6 month waiting period before listing medical debt and any such debt that was reported but subsequently paid by insurance will be removed transunion equifax and experian agree to overhaul credit reporting practices nytimes com believe it or not i also have opinions such as this one from payment systems bitcoins and cryptocurrencies will never be major currencies another form of payment receiving media attention recently is through the use of bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies some of the main advantages advanced for bitcoin are that the supply is strictly limited and not controlled by the government bitcoins can be subdivided indefinitely into smaller payments allowing for micro payments and the cost of transactions is extremely low however some of these advantages touted for bitcoin result because it is an entirely electronic form of money if the united states dollar or the euro was made entirely electronic then those currencies could be subdivided indefinitely to allow for micro payments most fiat currencies have a lower limit for value because they are represented by coins and paper currency which cost money to produce indeed the us penny and nickel cost more to produce than their fiat value on the other hand the value of electronic money can be reduced virtually without limit to form smaller payments that transaction costs for bitcoins are usually lower than using other electronic payment systems such as credit or debit cards is also artificial since transaction costs are set by banks and other payment service providers such as mastercard and visa who are reluctant to lower prices that constitute a major source of profit the transaction costs for current methods of payment could be much lower but the lack of competition and government control has kept these transaction costs higher when money becomes entirely electronic and the government institutes reforms to take advantage of electronic payments which i believe is inevitable then all the advantages of electronic payment such as enabling micro payments and lowering the transaction costs will be realized for that currency that the supply of bitcoin is limited is actually a major disadvantage since the value of bitcoin varies widely over short spans of time because supply cannot be increased or decreased to meet changing demand the problem with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies or for that matter any other means of payment such as gold where the supply cannot be controlled is that it cannot satisfy the primary functions of money as a unit of exchange as a unit of account and as a store of value although cryptocurrencies can be used as a unit of exchange it is very risky to do so imagine if walmart or amazon accepted bitcoin for payment what would happen to these companies or any other company if the value of bitcoin suddenly dropped to half its value or more as it has already done in december 2017 the price of 1 bitcoin reached almost 20 000 shortly afterwards near the start of 2018 the price of bitcoin was less than 9 000 usd the pay rate for emp...
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