Topic 07 · Taxes & Stocks

Taxes and the Stock Market

Income taxes, stocks, and bonds — the last content week, with a cumulative Final Exam replacing the usual Homework and Review.

Start Lesson 1 Play all 10 videos First time? Tour the week →

Lessons

6 lessons · each with a video, a worked example and practice

4:18 Lesson 1: Reading a paycheck.Gross pay is what you earned; net pay is what hits your bank account. Everything between them is a deduction. The first lesson of financial literacy is learning to read the gap.
4:23 Lesson 2: Tax brackets and marginal rate.Moving into a higher bracket does NOT mean all your income gets taxed at the higher rate. Only the dollars above the bracket threshold do. The math behind one of the most-misunderstood ideas in personal finance.
4:17 Lesson 3: Filing, refunds, and effective rate.April 15 is the day the math from Lessons 1 and 2 settles up. The effective tax rate, computed at the end of the year, tells you what percentage of every dollar you earned actually went to the federal government.
4:09 Lesson 4: Stocks: shares, dividends, return.A stock is a tiny ownership stake in a company. Its price moves up and down, and along the way the company may pay you dividends. The return on your investment is the sum of both pieces.
4:55 Lesson 5: Bonds: face value, coupon, yield.A bond is a loan you make to a company or government, in exchange for regular interest payments and the return of your principal at maturity. The flip side of a stock: lender, not owner.
5:13 Lesson 6: Diversification and the stock-bond split.Stocks pay more in the long run but swing wider in the short. Bonds smooth the ride at the cost of some return. A real portfolio is a mix of both, tuned to your time horizon. The closing lesson of the course.

Then

the rest of the week

Discussion DQ 1: Discussion Walkthrough, posting rhythm, and what the DQ is really asking. Discussion DQ 2: Discussion Walkthrough, posting rhythm, and what the DQ is really asking. Final review Final Exam Review Cumulative ALEKS review — many questions drawn from the whole course. The exam Final Exam Cumulative ALEKS exam — 100 pts. Walkthrough + prep notes. Self-check Mastery Check 4 quick questions - 2 multiple choice, 2 calculations. Perfect score earns one substantive participation post.

The Final Exam and its review are graded under this topic in Halo, which is why they appear above — but none of the final’s thirty questions come from Topic 7. They are drawn from Topics 1 through 6. There is no ALEKS homework here either. Revise this topic because it is the mathematics from this course you are most likely to use again, not because it is examined.

What you'll learn

145 pts 220 pts 2 objectives

What you'll learn

Analyze systems of stocks and bonds to help develop financial literacy skills.
Analyze the system of income taxes to help develop financial literacy skills.

Interactive tools

Playground Tax Bracket Calculator Drag the income slider, pick a filing status, and watch the bracket walk fill in. Marginal rate and effective rate appear side by side. Five real-life income presets from entry-level to high earner. Playground Portfolio Glide Path How target-date funds automatically reallocate your money as you age. Pick your current age, retirement age, and a rule of thumb (100-, 110-, or 120-minus-age). See the stock and bond allocation slide across decades — and the expected-return trade-off of going more conservative.

Tools & Resources

Library Topic 7 resource library Curated extras across all 6 lessons. 2 items available so far. Study aid Glossary Every vocab term across the 6 lessons in one study sheet. 30 terms so far. Study aid Cheat sheet Key formulas, common mistakes, and quick-reference factors. Printable for the test.