With some reflections, the tutor opens a discussion about the price of oil. For years, I tutored high school math to young men headed to Alberta or Saskatchewan. Months later, in the oil fields, they made several times what I …
Business and Economics: ripples from the price of oil Read more »
The tutor begins exploring the frontier of holding companies. Years ago, training in financial planning, I read about holding companies – mainly about their tax treatment. What I learned was that holding companies can be complex situations. A holding company’s …
Business and Economics: Holding Companies, part 0 Read more »
The tutor shares a really neat find from the world of accounting. Although I’m an academic, the first post-secondary diploma I received, believe it or not, was in accounting and office management. While I haven’t used it much professionally, what …
Accounting and Business: Depreciation: Sum-of-years’-digits method Read more »
The tutor explores a common topic among families. Lately, I’ve been driving the kids to their activities and my wife to and from work. While there’s rarely been a dull moment, I’ve arrived at the topic of fuel consumption and …
The tutor continues exploring annuities. In my previous post I introduced the idea of an annuity with an example. That example had each payment at month’s-end; hence, it was an ordinary annuity. With an annuity due, the payment is …
Financial math: ordinary annuity versus annuity due Read more »
A lifetime ago, the tutor studied financial planning. That’s when he got acquainted with the HP-10B. Of the financial calculators I know, the Hewlett-Packard HP-10B is potentially the easiest to use. One feature of particular value to anyone in financial …
Financial math: interest rate conversions on the HP-10B Read more »
The tutor continues to investigate energy alternatives. The comparison between electric and gasoline cars might depend on your point of view. Someone told me a while ago that electric cars are 50% efficient. I was surprised to hear that number, …
Energy efficiency: electric cars vs gasoline-powered cars Read more »
Since 2008, the tutor has listened for economic news. While it doesn’t often arise in tutoring, economic performance is important across to the board. In 2008, the US gross public debt, which I’d just call “government debt”, was around 64.8% …
US compared to Eurozone: some initial figures, 2014 – 2016 Read more »
Tutoring high school, I’ve never been asked this. The tutor looks into a question he’s long wondered about. The phrase “free port” means pretty much what I expected: a port where goods can be exchanged, duty-free, then reshipped. As long …