Interview Project Thoughts

This interview project was honestly very interesting to me. For starters, I asked my grandma to open her email to answer some questions for me…and it took me ten minutes over the phone to explain to her how to do just that. Getting her to open the attachment in the email was another 5 minutes, and having her email me back her responses was a decent 15-20. Awesome.

Generational differences always interest me, but I never thought about them from an economic standpoint. When I think about money, I understand inflation and I understand generally if a price is going to go up or down, it’s going to go up. But I never really think about where price levels began one day, years ago, when the wheel was invented, when my Grandma was cool…

From all the interrogations I did, a theme arose. Regardless of how much something may cost, and whether its price has risen or remained the same in an economy, people always have to make tradeoffs. The price of an average car now would have been something traded off 30 years ago. Prices change and people make tradeoffs while simultaneously fighting against inflation. Inflation changes the value of money, and tradeoffs change based on the value of a dollar.

Because of inflation and the difference in price levels from 40 years ago, to 20 years ago, to today, people are money crazy. EVERYTHING is expensive and everyone wants to have as much money as possible to afford the nicer things in life. Tradeoffs will always be made but they will be made on a per person basis based off of what goods people believe aren’t a necessity. Is it more important to have a BMW or to dress well? Depends on the person’s standpoint and values (since they are subjective).

Since the stock market doesn’t really affect me, I focused more on how it affects my grandma and dad. Both of them argued, in different terms, that the stock market affects their savings and retirement plans. Today, MANY people are planning their retirements early on so that they have a financially stable future, but yet most Americans don’t even know all that much about economy and the market. How can one save their money accurately and invest in the best ways if they aren’t informed enough on the industry they would do this in? I’m guilty of being uninformed, but I believe more people NEED to be informed.

Because a lot of people are uninformed, they make uninformed decisions…not just about saving. My grandma made numerous “neutral” decisions in the chart listed in the post above probably…most likely…because she was uninformed about the topic she was asked about. The only questions she was neutral about were questions that required facts and not opinions. People need to get in the know, so they know what to do! Economics is important! 

Interview Project Results

Questions--Grandma 

1.     In your lifetime, what city that you are familiar with has changed the most (both positive and negative)? New York. I have seen this city change with all the different nationalities that have moved here.

2.     In your opinion, what president had the biggest positive impact on the economy? Why?   Probably Truman and F. D. Roosevelt They were involved with Social Security and making positive advances for the seniors.

3.     What is your first memory of a major economic event impacting your life? What economic event in your lifetime had the biggest impact on you? The depression was my first major economic event; my family of 5 was living on two dollars a day. Most food we had to use food stamps to get meat, sugar, butter and other food.

4.     What tradeoffs in your life have you made due to economics (note to interviewer/student: this question is about the concept of scarcity)?  Our family could not afford to travel, go on expensive vacations and do a lot of things that other people who lived with higher income could do.

5.     How do you get economic news? How has this changed over your life? Mostly what I read in the daily paper and television news reports.  Television news has changed a lot over the years they have been able to report news as it happens, go to places the government would not allow them too in the past.

6.     How do you deal will rising prices e.g. substitute cheaper brand, stop buying? Any examples?  I am very aware of watching for sale items at lower prices.  We do not buy higher priced meat, fish etc. Going out to dinner at restaurants is not something that happens too often. 

7.     What product or service has most changed over your lifetime?  There are so many changes in my lifetime.  Example is when I was young I can remember buying a loaf of bread for fifteen cents and today it is three dollars and ninety nine cents.  Automobile gas was eighteen cents a gallon and today it is three dollars and forty seven cents.

8.     How do you handle saving and how has this changed?  When I was working I saved   ten   percent   of   my salary every week and my company matched this amount in a   savings   account.  This was an IRA savings plan and when I retired I withdrew from this account for a few years.  Now that account is all gone and now I live on Social Security.

9.     What age were you when you got your first credit card?   I’m not exactly sure but I think I was around 40.

10.  How much does the stock market affect your life?  It affects me when the government doesn’t invest to build more money for Social Security.  I never invested in the stock market.

Questions--Dad

1.     In your lifetime, what city that you are familiar with has changed the most (both positive and negative)? I think New York City has changed the most in my lifetime

2.     In your opinion, what president had the biggest positive impact on the economy? Why? I think Reagan had the biggest positive impact on the economy.

3.     What is your first memory of a major economic event impacting your life? What economic event in your lifetime had the biggest impact on you? My first memory would be the gas crisis in the 70s and having to wait on long lines for gas.  The economic event that had the biggest impact on me would be the crash of 2008

4.     What tradeoffs in your life have you made due to economics (note to interviewer/student: this question is about the concept of scarcity)? I know that I cannot afford certain things such as expensive cars.

5.     How do you get economic news? How has this changed over your life? From the Internet.  It has changed because I used to get it from TV or newspapers.

6.     How do you deal will rising prices e.g. substitute cheaper brand, stop buying? Any examples? It is a combination of either buying something cheaper (cars, certain types of food as examples) or stop buying totally.

7.     What product or service has most changed over your lifetime? Method of communication has changed the most from telephone and letters to email, text, IM, etc.

8.     How do you handle saving and how has this changed? Saving has been a very difficult thing to do.

9.     What age were you when you got your first credit card? 19

10.  How much does the stock market affect your life? It impacts my 401K and retirement savings, which may make me have to work later in life and possibly never be able to retire.

Questions--Me

1.     In your lifetime, what city that you are familiar with has changed the most (both positive and negative)? I don’t really believe I have seen a city change that much. If I had to guess, it would be Washington DC. When I was younger, it seemed like a popular city for people to visit and for young aspiring politicians to live, but now all you hear about is the poverty that infests it and the negative politics that occur there.

2.     In your opinion, what president had the biggest positive impact on the economy? Why? I think Obama has had the biggest positive impact. Even though the recession was bad, he is slowly pulling us out of it and making larger leaps than anyone else in his position probably would have.

3.     What is your first memory of a major economic event impacting your life? What economic event in your lifetime had the biggest impact on you? The recession of 2008 was what I remember best, my parents didn’t get affected visually it seemed, but it did hurt us and we had to watch our money very closely.

4.     What tradeoffs in your life have you made due to economics (note to interviewer/student: this question is about the concept of scarcity)? I cannot purchase any type of clothing that I want or food that I want, I have to be very brand savvy.

5.     How do you get economic news? How has this changed over your life? Over the internet or TV, always been this way!

6.     How do you deal will rising prices e.g. substitute cheaper brand, stop buying? Any examples? If it is a good I need all the time, I buy a cheaper brand or buy it in bulk to save money. If it is something unnecessary, I stop buying it.

7.     What product or service has most changed over your lifetime? I think that gas has changed most over my lifetime. I can remember, “wowing” at the prices of gas my parents used to pay, and now I’m wowing at how much I pay.

8.     How do you handle saving and how has this changed? Saving is difficult but normally I put 50% of each paycheck in my savings account. Luckily, I’m young and don’t have any bills or major expenses.

9.     What age were you when you got your first credit card? 18

10.  How much does the stock market affect your life? It doesn’t at all.