Isabella Francis

Ron McKay

Math 1050

11 November 2021 Reflective Writing for Credit Card Lab

The purpose of this lab was to calculate payments that a person having a credit card debt

would end up paying throughout a year, how long to pay off the credit card and if the payments

were different. The lab required that we understood how to calculate the overall payment for

each month as well as the interest rate for each payment. The mathematical techniques I used

were logarithms, percentages and a formula to calculate the currency.

I think that this lab could definitely be applied to real life because my relatives have taken

credit cards and have been paying the balance for such a long time and I wanted to know why

and how much they were actually paying. I could apply the same principles and techniques to my

own family situation to calculate how much interest we are paying. I had already known that

taking a credit card would be very difficult to pay back but I didn't know that it was because you

are paying a bunch of interest on top of the original amount.

If I were a financial adviser I would make sure to explain to the person who wants to use

a credit card the repercussions of interest and that they are going to end up paying more than

what they originally took out for a loan. It would also be important to explain how paying off the

debt might take them a lot longer than they expected.

I believe that this assignment reinforced that math can be useful in many different ways

when it comes to calculating how much money you have. I believe that most careers will

implement some form of math, however I don't think that it is primarily used in everyday life. I
believe that math is important when you want to calculate your money or time. This assignment

reinforced some of my ideals about math.

I think the best way to pay off a credit card balance is to manage your money so that you

have enough money to cover the initial payment as well as the interest. Also, using the methods

within this assignment can prove useful so you have an estimate of how much you need to pay

and for how long. The worst way of paying off a credit card debt is to expect that you are only

paying what is asked without interest. The two things that the average consumer can learn from

this assignment is how to effectively calculate the amount they will pay every year and for how

many years they will be paying this amount. Overall, I am happy that I was able to complete this

assignment because it taught me a lot.