Learning Is The First Step
AfterEcon is all about what to after having studied economics. That is, it is all about applying economics (distinct from the study of Applied Economics). This article reviews some recent dietary changes I’ve made through that lens. When I was younger, enrolled at ACC, and working at WalMart, my diet consisted of oatmeal for breakfast … Read more
This article is provided by Rae Steinbach. Rae is a graduate of Tufts University with a combined International Relations and Chinese degree. After spending time living and working abroad in China, she returned to NYC to pursue her career. Higher education is more important than ever, but many students and young people don’t have the … Read more
This article roughly estimates a healthy cost per meal for your use in a budget, and mentions related services of interest. Food is awesome. I’m fortunate enough to have a wife that can cook, some cooking skills of my own, a living location in proximity to many good restaurants, and a budget to more or … Read more
I recently bragged about some major improvements Bank of America (BoA) has rolled out to their online platform which facilitate real budgeting. Even so, I noted some issues. This article provides a partial update, describes two new issues, and a strategy for obtaining bank data to create a superior external application. Such an external application … Read more
In typical financial planning an individual will seek to maximize wealth, perhaps adjusted a bit to smooth income over the course of their life or due to risk considerations. Economic planning, in contrast, favors optimizing on happiness or utility instead of material wealth alone. This article presents 10 questions to help you determine your degree … Read more
I have an account with BOA and they recently spammed me talking about how cool their new budget tool is. I used their old tool and it sucked. This new one doesn’t suck. To get to the tool, don’t look in the logical place under the Tools & Investing -> Budget area. Instead, look under … Read more
A savings and investment plan is an important component of a comprehensive budget. It’s not that hard to do, but there are some common mistakes some folks make. This article addresses how to form your savings and investment plan in a way that allows you optimize in an apples-to-apples way by focusing on time and … Read more
This article discusses when you might want to re-do your personal or business budget, with a focus on household budgeting. I generally suggest people do monthly and quarterly budgets. If you’re a business you should also engage longer-term 1, 3, 5, and 10 year plans. As part of constructing the budget it is important to … Read more
This article discusses the fact that government is usually less efficient that the free market and estimates the inefficiency factor. We then correct a classic view of measuring cost to society of government intrusion into a free market by introducing the government inefficiency factor to a standard measurement model. Government inefficiency is a hot topic on … Read more
The problem is incentives. I work hard and make an A in class. You are lazy and make a D+. The class average is a B. The professor says, “To be fair, next test everyone will simply earn the average. It’s equal that way.”Now I expect to earn a B even if I work hard … Read more