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Never cosign for an auto loan. Yes, they may need your help. Yes, they may be a great friend or your own flesh and blood. But it's never a good idea - especially if you aren't planning on having to pay off the entire loan when the person who signs for it defaults.

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Before going to the car lot, try lining up your financing at a local credit union first. Credit unions often offer better rates than banks and financing companies at car dealerships. Once your financing is lined up, you'll know how much you can spend on a car.

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Some educational loans have a minimum monthly payment. Please enter the appropriate figure ($50 for Stafford Loans, $40 for Perkins Loans and $50 for PLUS Loans) in the minimum payment field. Enter a higher figure to see how much money you can save by paying off your debt faster.

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Budget Project Part 1-Step by Step Guide

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Budget Project Part 1-Step by Step Guide

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12/11/18: See me for your "information."

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Track expenses for one week

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Budget Project Part 1.docx

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Answer on your own sheet of paper and turn in

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Investment Risk Tolerance Assessment | Personal Financial Planning | College of Human Environmental Sciences | University of Missouri

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Investment Risk Tolerance Assessment at the University of Missouri's Department of Personal Financial Planning in Columbia, MO.

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What Investment Strategy is Best for Me?

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What Investment Strategy is Best for Me?

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Take notes and answer the questions

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It appears the GOP has settled on a final tax bill. While it ain't over till it's over, we're close enough that an article on the new 2018 federal income tax rates makes sense.

Representing a major tax-overhaul, the bill makes significant changes to the federal income tax brackets and deductions. Let's look at both, starting with the 2018 income tax brackets.
2018 Income Tax Brackets
The number of brackets remained the same at seven. Rates overall, however, have come down. For individuals, these lower rates are scheduled to expire in 2025 unless Congress extends them.

The top rate will fall from 39.6% to 37%. The bottom rate remains at 10%, but it covers twice the amount of income compared to the previous brackets.
2018 Standard Deduction and Exemptions
The new tax rules also make big changes to the standard deduction and exemptions.

The standard deduction in 2018 as the law currently exists is $13,000 for a couple filing jointly. That number will jump to $24,000. For single filers it jumps from $6,500 to $12,000.

The personal exemption, currently at $4,150 for 2018, would be repealed. That's the bad news. The good news the child tax credit gets a big boost.

It currently sits at $1,000 and starts to phase out at $110,000 in income for couples and $75,000 in income for everybody else. Under the new law, the credit doubles to $2,000, $1,400 of which is a refundable tax credit. Further, it doesn't start to phase out until $400,000 in income for couples and $200,000 for singles.
2018 Itemized Deductions
Several key changes are coming for itemized deductions. State and local taxes can still be itemized, but they are now capped at $10,000. This concession attempts to address the uproar from states that levy big taxes on their citizens.

Interest on mortgages for primary and secondary residences is still deductible. The limit, however, has come down from loans up to $1 million to loans up to $750,000.

Medical expenses in 2017 and 2018 are deductible to the extent the exceed 7.5% of income (down from 10%).
Preparing Your Tax Returns
This end-of-year change to the 2018 tax brackets shouldn't affect 2017 returns. You can find a comparison of the best tax prep programs here.

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The New 2018 Federal Income Tax Brackets & Rates

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Here are the 2018 federal income tax brackets, standard deduction, credits, and itemized deductions based on the new GOP tax plan.

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Income Taxes: Tax Refund or Fewer Taxes Withheld?

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Income Taxes: Tax Refund or Fewer Taxes Withheld?

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3.3 Income Taxes Is it better to get a tax refund or have fewer taxes withheld worksheet

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3.3 Income Taxes Tax Saving Strategies Worksheet

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Income Taxes: What are all these deductions?

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Income Taxes: What are all these deductions?

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3.3 Income Taxes What are all these deductions worksheet

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For HONORS only!

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Think about this in two ways, from an employee's perspective and from an employer's perspective. How does the information change with each perspective?

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USMCA vs NAFTA, explained with a toy car

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US-China Trade War Explained in under 5 Minutes

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US-China Trade War Explained in under 5 Minutes

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The US-China Trade War Explained in Under 5 Minutes!

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chinese president have good conversation

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trump says trade talks on track with chinese president xi

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trump signals progress in chinese trade dispute

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Trump Signals Progress on Trade After Phone Call With Chinese President Xi

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President Trump said he had a "long and very good conversation" with Chinese President Xi Jinping and signaled progress on the trade dispute between the nations.

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While some trade war tactics have led to revolutions (Boston Tea Party), others have failed miserably (Smoot-Hawley Act). Here's a look at seven U.S. trade wars that made an impact-for better or for worse-on our country.

Major players: American colonists, British Parliament

Tools of the trade (war): Tea

"Taxation without representation." That was the rallying cry December 16, 1773, at Griffin's Wharf in Boston, when colonists waged a political protest over taxes levied by Great Britain, including the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend Acts of 1767 that taxed everything from newspapers and playing cards to paint, glass and, yes, tea. Following the 1770 Boston Massacre, Britain repealed all but the tea tax, leading to a colonial boycott of the British East India Company and tea smuggling. The night of the infamous tea party, organized by the Sons of Liberty (which counted John Hancock, John Adams and Paul Revere among its members), a reported 116 men tossed 342 chests of tea-92,000 pounds of the stuff valued at around $1 million by today's standards-overboard.

Consequences: The British Parliament and King George III enacted the Coercive Acts, which among other orders, closed Boston Harbor until the tea was paid for, stopped free elections in Massachusetts and required colonists to house British troops on demand. In response, the other colonies sent supplies and were spurred to declare the right of the colonies to govern independently. The Revolutionary War began soon after, on April 19, 1775.

2. The Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930

Major players: United States, Canada, Europe and other nations

Tools of the trade (war): Thousands of imported goods

President Herbert Hoover originally set out to deal with a farm crisis during the early years of the Great Depression, proposing tariffs on agricultural imports. But Senators Reed Smoot and Willis C. Hawley offered their own legislation, and added a slew of industrial tariffs. This was despite a petition signed by 1,000 U.S. economists calling, unsuccessfully, for Hoover to veto the plan. The world responded with tariffs on U.S. exports, adding more strain to the already-devastated economy.

Consequences: Considered a disaster by many, the Smoot-Hawley Act led to retaliation from other countries, including Canada. It contributed to U.S. exports falling by 61 percent in 1933, and stalled economic recovery during the Depression. Thanks largely to the failure of Smoot-Hawley, Hoover lost the next election to Franklin D. Roosevelt (Smoot and Hawley were also ousted) and Roosevelt's Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act of 1934 replaced Smoot-Hawley, allowing the president to negotiate tariff reductions.

3. The Chicken Tariff War of the 1960s

Major players: United States, France and West Germany

Tools of the trade (war): Chicken, brandy, trucks and more

With the rise of mass-produced, factory chicken farming in America, the world responded by buying up cheaper U.S. poultry, and chicken imports in Europe soared. That didn't sit well with France and West Germany, who imposed tariffs on the birds, leading to big losses in the U.S. poultry industry. With feathers, well, ruffled, the United States, led by President Lyndon Johnson, fought back with a 25 percent tax on "light trucks," including Volkswagen buses, French brandy, potato starch and dextrin.

Consequences: The Japanese auto industry also took a big hit from the tax, which remains on light trucks. Some brands, including Toyota and Isuzu, have found loopholes, such as erecting assembly plants on U.S. territory, to circumvent them.

4. The 1987 Trade War with Japan

Major players: United States and Japan

Tools of the trade (war): Cars, electronics, motorcycles

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan doubled the import prices on $300 million-worth of Japanese computers, power tools and TVs. The administration said the tariffs were in response to Japan's failure to comply with an agreement that the country would allow more U.S. imports into its markets and would stop under-pricing American semiconductor computer chips. In the 1980s, Japanese autos were also subject to high tariffs.

Consequences: Japan chose not to strike back. The country's minister of international trade, Hajime Tamura, told the press, "Hoping to prevent this issue from causing severe damage to the world's free-trading system, the Japanese government has decided, from this broader perspective, not to take any retaliatory measures immediately." Economists Anna Zhou and Ethan Harris of Bank of America Merrill Lynch say the tariffs did not slow the United State's trade deficit. Japanese cars saw a 3 percent dip in America and, in 1984, U.S. consumers paid an estimated $53 billion more because of import tariffs.

5. Canada-U.S. Lumber Wars

Major players: United States and Canada

Tools of the trade (war): Softwood lumber (think pines, cedars, firs)

Canada harvests wood from public lands, with market prices decided by the government. The United States logs mostly on private lands, with the market driving the price. In 1982, the United States argued that Canada was unfairly subsidizing its softwood lumber. The standoff led to years of disputes and continued tariffs (or duties).

Consequences: While Canada was expected to pay hundreds of millions in softwood lumber tariffs in 2018, U.S. consumers also faced record lumber prices as the home construction industry boomed. According to the publication Random Lengths, which covers the lumber industry, the cost of western Canadian lumber was up around 40 percent by 2018.

6. The 1993 Banana Wars

Major players: United States, Europe, Latin America

Tools of the trade (war): Bananas, European luxury goods

Bananas aren't really grown all that much in the United States outside of Hawaii and Florida, but all those banana farms in Latin America? Many are owned by American companies. The United States complained back in 1993 when Europe was imposing high tariffs on fruit coming from Latin America so that its former Caribbean colonies could have an advantage in the market. In retaliation, the U.S. placed tariffs on items such as French handbags, British linens and Danish hams.

Consequences: After filing eight complaints with the World Trade Organization, the European Union, in 2009, agreed to gradually ease the tariffs, and, in 2012, the banana war finally ended. "I never in my life thought I would spend so much time on bananas," then-secretary of state Madeleine Albright once declared.

7. The 2002 Steel Tariff

Major players: United States, Europe

Tools of the trade (war): Steel, oranges

In an effort to boost the country's steel industry, George W. Bush imposed temporary tariffs of 8-30 percent on steel imports. Canada and Mexico were exempt due to NAFTA issues, but the European Union quickly retaliated with tariffs on Florida oranges, American cars and more. A complaint against the United States was also filed with the World Trade Organization, which found the U.S. in violation of tariff rate commitments. Bush ended the tariffs in 18 months, earlier than the planned three-year period.

Consequences: Widely considered a wash by economists, the tariffs led to higher steel prices and, according to the Institute for International Economics, the loss of up to 26,000 jobs in steel-using industries. Other analysts, however, say steel jobs were added and that the industry saw a small uptick in profits.

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7 Contentious Trade Wars in U.S. History

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From the Boston Tea Party to the banana wars of the 1990s, U.S. trade battles have yielded mixed results for Americans.

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History is full of trade wars.

In the majority of cases, the consequences are mostly economic - trade barriers are enacted, and then retaliatory measures are used to counter. Relations can continue to escalate until an understanding can be reached by both parties.

In the minority of cases, trade wars can lead to world-changing consequences.

You may remember that the Boston Tea Party of 1773 was a bold response to an unfair trade measure imposed by a ruling power, and it proved to be a key catalyst that led to the American Revolution.

Meanwhile, the Opium Wars occurred after the Qing Dynasty (China) tried to prevent British merchants from selling opium to the Chinese in the 1830s. These trade barriers led to armed conflicts, and effectively put the nail in the coffin of the Qing Dyasty - the start of China's infamous "century of humiliation".

U.S. Trade Wars

Today's chart pulls together details on some of the biggest trade conflicts in modern U.S. history.

Here are some of the more interesting U.S. trade wars, and how they compare to the current spat that is evolving with major trade partners:

1. Smoot-Hawley, 1930
Imposed during The Great Depression, the Smoot-Hawley Act is almost universally recognized by economists and economic historians as triggering a trade war that exacerbated the recovery.

2. Chicken Friction, 1963
Factory farming of chicken in the U.S. ended up catching European farmers off guard. French and German authorities responded by imposing tariffs, and the U.S. then taxed imports such as trucks and brandy.

3. Jabs at Japan, 1981
Japan's mid-century rise led to the country becoming an export powerhouse. As Japanese cars flooded the U.S. market, intense pressure eventually led to the signing of a Voluntary Export Restraint (VER) agreement that limited sales in the United States. During this same timeframe, the two countries also squabbled about other goods like electronics, motorcycles, and semiconductors.

4. War of the Woods, 1982
The Canada-U.S. Softwood Lumber dispute kicked off in 1982, but it inevitably resurfaces in the news every few years.

5. Pasta Spat, 1985
The U.S. was displeased with the level of access for citrus products in Europe, and put a tariff on pasta products. Europe retaliated by taxing walnuts and lemons from the States.

6. Battle of the Bananas, 1993
Another agricultural trade war, the Battle of the Bananas occurred after Europe slapped tariffs on the import of Latin American bananas. Many of these companies, owned by Americans, were not impressed. In response, there were eight separate complaints filed to the World Trade Organization (WTO). They weren't resolved until 2012.

7. Steel Salvoes, 2002
These were the last major U.S. steel tariffs introduced before the more recent ones. The goal was similar: to revive the steel industry in the country. However, after a period of brief stability, jobs continued to decline. The European Union responded by taxing oranges exported from Florida.

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Infographic: A Short History of U.S. Trade Wars

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In this fascinating modern history of U.S. trade wars, we show the most interesting conflicts affecting U.S. trade in the last century.

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1.5 Wealth of Nations Division of Labor-1

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Factors of Production and Economic Systems Notes

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Factors of Production and Economic Systems Notes

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Basics of Economy PPT Factors of Production and Economic Systems

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Answer questions, turn in.