The goal of my project was to learn about money and investing. I have successfully learned about cryptocurrencies and what bitcoin is. I have learned about the differences between a liability and an asset. I have invested in assets through Robinhood, a platform where you trade stocks. I discussed topics like taxes, insurance, and real estate. 

I would now frame my experience as a question of how people use the stock market or assets to become wealthy or wealthier. Now, having successfully completed my senior project, I have realized that it’s not as complicated as it is made out to be. It’s all about knowing what an asset is and what a liability is and learning how to take advantage of the system. 

I expected to learn about the stock market, how it functions, what affected it, and why it went up or down. I learned that and much more. I don’t think I ever expected to really invest any money or to go as far as learning when to buy and when to sell stock. I successfully opened a bank account and educated those in my community. I expected to do all these things but never expected the feeling I received afterward. I felt less limited in what I could do after performing all these tasks. It became another step into my adulthood and put things into perspective when thinking about my future and how I expected to live. 

I don’t think I really faced any challenges throughout my project. The only challenging part was understanding how people rely on something so unpredictable as a source of income. I have learned that the stock market is primarily based on or aligns with people’s opinions about products or things. Currently, people are panicking because of inflation and people believe that we might go into recession. Because of these things the stock market is down bad. “The problem, it seems, is that inflation is forcing consumers to spend more on food and less on more profitable discretionary items”, says MKM analyst Bill Kirk. The higher interest rates and more money it takes to acquire funding, the more people sell. In order for things to be trending up in the stock market there needs to be more buyers than sellers of a particular product.

Personally, I am glad I took on this project as it has allowed me to explore another interest aside from thinking about how the education system functions. It has shown me how to make money through assets and the history the government shares with taxing people.

I was surprised by how much real-world problems affect the stock market. Higher inflation, fueled by rising food prices and the war in Ukraine, has forced the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates. Because of this stock prices went way down. I was also surprised by how the stock market is constantly changing and how real people are behind the products being sold and bought. The whole idea of there being a space where people can sell their products at prices dictated by the seller and people buying is crazy to me. I was especially surprised by how simple it is to acquire a basic understanding of how the stock market works. I didn’t know there were ways to avoid paying taxes and that a car or home wasn’t really an asset. When I reflect on the entire experience I am proud of the fact that I came out with a better understanding of what it means to manage money and navigate throughout the stock market. If I could do my Senior Project again I would take more risks and ask even more questions to the experts around me.

The hardest aspect of the Senior Project process was accepting that there were limitations to what I could do. We were asked to spend six weeks demonstrating a connection to the outside world and engaging in self-led learning in an area of passion. That’s what I initially set out to do but instead chose to learn what it meant to be financially literate. Today we sat in a classroom for approximately an hour on a site that promised financial literacy. What is lacking from LREI and likely other schools’ education is an extensive curriculum and teaching of financial literacy. I want my audience to understand this fact. I want my audience to understand what it really means to become financially literate and that it starts with a comprehensive understanding of the difference between a liability and an asset and how most people confuse the two. 

The theme of my Senior Project was how to use and understand money but also how to use money as a tool for wealth development. After the conclusion of my project, I realized that the idea that the rich are born rich is slightly false but that is another question to look at more closely. I will be continuing my project beyond the 6 weeks and continuing my volunteer work with younger students.