DQ1 and DQ2 Need 8 responses for these Students ASAP

Topic 6

1)Ryan Cater Re: Topic 6 DQ 1

If for any unfortunate reason a student happens to fail a class, he or she will have to pay for the class again. In an event that falling might happen the student could also lose a scholarship, or any funding that they have obtained for their college tuition. If a student happens to drop a class they must do so before the class starts, to avoid a charge. If a student drops a class after starting, withing the first week they are still liable for 25 percent of the tuition. When a student drops a class after the first week, they will be responsible for the full charge of the course. I have not developed a backup plan yet; I do not plan on failing or dropping out of a class.

2) Saimarie Nunez Crespo Re: Topic 6 DQ 1

While I don’t think about failure, I understand it is important to analyze possible outcomes that can arise. If a student does not pass a class, this affects academic development and can lead to serious consequences such as not graduating, GPA deficiencies, having to repeat the class, and lengthening the time to complete your degree. Also, financial responsibilities will get compromised as the student will have to pay out of pocket to retake the failing course. On many occasions, if the student has scholarships that have very strict requirements and clauses, such as maintaining a high GPA, it can lead to the retrieval or cancelation of the scholarship. 

Honestly, I do not have a backup plan. I strongly believe that if I do, this will enable an “is okay, because I have”, and I don't want to fall in that comfort zone. My academic degree is a very strong commitment for me, I am involved financially, personally, and emotionally with my degree. This is what gives me the strength to continue and to do well in my classes.

3) Jessica Walker 7 postsRe: Topic 6 DQ 1

Failing a class is a very unfortunate but possible occurrence. As students, we need to be realistic and prepared for the possibility. Unfortunately, if we were to fail a class we would be responsible for having to pay for the class and retake the course. Depending on the student’s financial guidelines, the student may forfeit any scholarships or educational funding they have obtained for their tuition. Dropping a class is a little different. If the student chooses to drop their current class within the first week, they are still liable for twenty five percent of the tuition. If the student drops the course after the first week, they would be liable for the full charge of the class. Personally, these are things that I do no plan to partake in. I don’t currently have a backup plan as I do not plan to drop any classes. I also have fully committed to a schedule that will set me up for success in my courses so hopefully, I will not ever have to think about or face any negative consequences asurrounding my education.

4) Tyler Jones Re: Topic 6 DQ 1

Being active duty I am using tuition assistance from the Army to pay for school, if I fail this class I will have to pay the Army back full price. My wife just went through it with one of her classes, and when her direct deposit came it was $600 light. My financial responsibilities if I fail this class would be to take care of the bill that I would occur with the Army, and if you served you know that if you owe them money, they will get it. My backup plan is to take the class again, I want to be able to double up on classes and I can not do that with a failed class. I do not have a solid backup plan so it is imperative that I pass this class. 

Very Respectfully,

1)

Ryan Cater Re: Topic 6 DQ 2

In today’s economy it is especially important to budget one’s finances. In the article there are many great ideas on how to budget. One of the best ways in the article would have to be Developing a Household Budget. My wife and I have been using this tip for years. Every month we enter the months bills and subtract that from the income coming into the house. Any income left over we split in half, one half goes into savings and the other is for extra spending. Another good point in the article is Cook at Home, we prefer to eat at home. With a family of 6 eating out is awfully expensive, during special event when we do eat out the bill is never less than $100. The third helpful point would have to be, Always Compare Prices. The past few weeks I have been repairing my wife’s jeep, if I had purchased the parts at the dealership or a local parts store, the cost would have been almost $3,000. Ordering the parts online allowed me to get everything for around $1,200. One additional tip I can give is trying to raise and grow your own food. We raise and grow 80 percent of all the food my family consumes, one day I hope for my family to be completely self-efficient.

2)Saimarie Nunez Crespo 2 postsRe: Topic 6 DQ 2

The three strategies I read in this article that can help my personal budget are always comparing prices, cooking at home, and creating a wait-and-see list. Comparing prices will help find out the best deal for what I need to buy instead of just buying the first store I go to, not knowing if there is a better deal in another store. Cooking at home is a plan that I need to place in as soon as possible. Since it is only my husband and me, we tend to eat more outside, it could be a $20 meal for both but if I add that to 5 days a week is $100 a week time 4 weeks in a month is $400 a month that I could be saving if we eat at home. Creating a wait-and-see list is going to help me have control of what I really want to buy, for example, this year I got a new car. Was it the one I really wanted? The answer is no. I just bought it because I didn't want to wait any longer to get a new car, now I regret it almost every day. 

A strategy that I am currently using is, do I want it or do I need it. Practicing this strategy has helped me be more in control of my purchases when I go shopping. Therefore, I can save a little more money and have fewer things in the house that I will probably end up never using.

3) Jessica Walker 4 postsRe: Topic 6 DQ 2

Students can strongly benefit by reading the article “Make a Plan to Manage Personal Finances” by Michael Scheibach. The article gives various reasons that creating and maintaining a budget can be helpful. Personally, I am one of the individuals that lives by a budget. Developing a household budget is something my father instilled in me from a young age. I also try to prioritize my spending and cook at home as much as possible. It is very easy for things to get out of hand financially if you aren’t keeping track of every in and out of your accounts. Eating out alone can add up rather quickly if it becomes a regular habit. I know a lot of times, it seems like a better option simply for the convenience of not having to cook or do dishes after but it’s not always worth it. Not only is eating at home healthier in most cases, it helps keep some money in your account that you could use for other things or save for an unplanned expense. Another thing, I try to do is compare an item I want and see how it affects my life overall. Do I need this item or am I just going to enjoy it for that moment? It’s okay every now and then to buy things or spend money on a fun item or event but it’s important to understand how it affects you overall and make sure that one thing will not hurt you financially in the long run.

4)Callista Lofton Personal Budget

Several years ago my husband and I were gifted the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University from his sister. She had used it to pay off her debt and build wealth as a single person. She then passed on the materials to my husband's other sister and us to put to good use. We were kind of following the plan, but would go off budget every few months so we did not make much headway with our debt. Last year we had an epiphany that if we did not start and stay on track, then we would always be a slave to our lenders. We sat down together to create our dreams and set our goals for our money and how we wanted it to work for us instead of us working for it. In less then three months, we paid off our remaining debt of $15,000 and made our goal by eight days. We then set a new goal of having enough in our emergency savings account to cover 3 months of living expenses within four months. We also crushed that goal by nearly a month. Once we hit that goal, we knew we could accomplish anything and we have been living completely different lives then prior to getting out of debt. For the first time in the almost four years we have owned this house, we started remodeling. It has been stuck in the 1970s so this was something that was important to us. We started with a small, but satisfying project of remodeling our walk-in pantry. Paying for the remodel is not stressing us out because we are paying with cash and will not have the charge looming over us later on. 

Looking at the article, we used many of these tips and tricks to help us attain our goals in money management. We make a budget every single month together which includes a calendar of when the bills are due. Now that it has been a while, our budget meetings are short and sweet, though I know this next one will be more complex since I am now going to school and chose not to go back to work full time. We prioritize our spending by saving for high cost items and not spending more than we budgeted in a specific category. We pay for most things in cash and items that we can not use cash for, we have an excel spreadsheet with a running total of how much we spend in that category monthly. My Amazon cart is a living "wait and see list" with items on it that I would love to purchase, or think about longer before purchasing. We cook at home and compare prices as well as cost of gas to drive to a different store for specific items. We used a debt-free thermometer to track our progress and teach our kids the importance of being debt free and saving money. Finally, once our emergency fund was full, we hired a professional finance counselor who's values align with ours regarding money. We work with him to invest in our retirement accounts, save and grow our money in stocks and mutual funds as well as invest in our childrens' futures by contributing to their 529 account. 

So I guess you could say we already use a majority of these tips as well as some other tips from trusted resources.