Meet Mia Saver and Ima Spender are two 23-year-old women who recently graduated from college.  For a couple of years after graduation, neither of them saves any money for retirement. Both are focused on establishing their careers and purchasing household items.  At age 25, both decide it’s time to start a retirement account. In this activity, we’ll use an online financial calculator to better understand the power of compounding, interest rates and time!

One of the key strategies in investing is to take advantage of the power of compounding. Two of the most common cases of people benefitting from compounding are: receiving compound interest in a savings account, and getting compounded returns from stock market investments. In this activity, we’ll use one of these calculators to better understand the power of compounding.

Whether it’s buying that $5 coffee, a new piece of clothing that we don’t really need, or just trying to make ends meet, saving money is oftentimes easier said than done. We are often influenced by a variety of factors that make it difficult to save money. Many cartoonists have observed these challenges and wittily depict them in their cartoons. In this activity, you will pick one of the cartoons provided below and analyze how it portrays the challenges we encounter when it comes to saving money.