What is a tax refund advance? A tax refund advance is a short term loan that allows you to borrow money from your tax refund before you actually receive the money. Usually this type of loan has a high interest rate. The interest rate for this type of loan can be very high, maybe even up to almost 40%, which is ridiculous in my opinion. But there are still many other tax refund loans that are only 0% APR. 

In my opinion if the tax refund advance option has an interest rate involved, then I would only ever use it if I need money right away, for an important reason; other than that if the interest rate is very high, like almost 40% high, then what is the point to lose a good amount of money in order to use part of it right away.

Jimmy Carter was born to a rich farmer family in rural Georgia in October 1924. Rural Georgia is comprised inside the deep south where slavery was once predominant causing it to be among the last strongholds of ethnic segregation, so Jimmy grew up in that segregationist culture, but he didn’t like it until he had many close black friends, formed his anti-segregationist stance for the rest of his life.

Carter first entered into politics when he became a Georgia state senator. He eventually wanted to try to become the Georgian governor, but he failed because he openly wanted segregation to end, so he lost. Carter didn’t give up on this first loss, he worked harder but with a different strategy, he became close to segregationist leaders making him look like a segregationist and causing him to be elected as Georgian governor. When he became governor he suddenly showed his desegregation side and made much legislation desegregating Georgia.

In the 1967 presidential election, Jimmy successfully became president mostly because of his not having been corrupted by Washington DC politics and other things.

Jimmy Carter did many good things as president, but sadly got many hard challenges that he cants solve. The hard challenges are like the 1970s recession, the reescalation with the Soviet Union because of USSR invading Afghanistan, and the worse was the Iranian Hostage Crisis where he cants successfully free American hostages in Iran for 444 days.

He was a bad president because he can’t deal rightly with the hard challenges he faced, but he was not a bad guy, even winning a Nobel Peace Prize.

(disclaimer: I am not from the US, so I had to pretend that I was from the US to write this essay properly).

Preparing Taxes

There are many different ways to prepare your taxes. The different ways are: an online tax preparer software, having your taxes prepared by a professional tax preparer, and finally doing it by yourself. I would go with both the second and last options. Using online software has more risks because there is the risk of getting hacked, which I’d rather avoid. Having a professional help you prepare your taxes would be beneficial by saving your own time. Finally preparing your own taxes is the cheapest safest option, if you know what you are doing. that’s my opinion on tax preparations.

A Cell is a very small and complex organism. There are an estimated, nearly forty trillion cells in the human body alone! But what is exactly a cell and what is its purpose in the human body? 

A Cell like I said above is a small and complex organism, but there are more details to a Cell. A  Cell is surrounded by a Plasma or Membrane, which covers the cell and separates it from the material outside the Cell. The center of a Cell is the Nucleus. The Nucleus determines how the Cell will function, inside the Nucleus it contains Chromosome, and inside the Chromosome is deoxyribonucleic, or DNA, and Ribonucleic acid, or RNA.

DNA is the molecule that contains all the information that is required to maintain and build a Cell. RNA is used to express the information that is stored in DNA. DNA and RNA are not responsible alone for the preservation and expression of the genetic material.

The inside of a Cell is very busy and crowded. This is because a Cell contains many structures, liquid substances, and cytoplasm. A lot of action goes on in a Cell.

Africa is a very diverse and large continent, it also has the biggest river on Earth the Nile river. The Nile river was a very important part of the early civilizations in Africa.

The Main Ancient African Civilizations 

Egypt was the strongest and most well known of the ancient civilizations in Africa; Egypt was mostly ruled by Pharaohs. Even though Egypt is in a dessert it still was an agricultural nation, thanks to the Nile river.

The ancient civilization of Persia invaded and conquered Egypt, but over time the Egyptians regained their freedom. Egypt was again conquered in 31 BC by the Romans; Egypt was under the control of Rome until Rome collapsed in 476 AD. When Rome was on its decline Egypt adopted a new religion, Islam.

Nubia was located south of Egypt and was on the Nile river; Nubia was known for its trading with Arabia and the Mediterranean civilizations, Nubia also began iron working.

 Nubia was mostly independent from Egypt after the rise of the Roman empire; Nubia declined in power though in 400 AD.

Ethiopia first began as a civilization in 500 BC, as the civilization of Axum; the civilization was built up in a way so it could trade along the Red Sea coast. Ethiopia originally was a very Arab country, but then the civilization eventually incorporated elements of Egyptian and Greek culture.

During the first century the country was very strong and wealthy, they were also ruled by a strong and stable line of kings.

Africa After 500 AD to 1750

After 500 AD, Africa slowly developed more tribal nations, but it still mostly remained as a decentralized continent.

European countries began colonizing the African coast, to harvest the rich African resources and promote the slave trade.

I learned that I make a good income from tutoring, and other jobs for my parents. Another thing I learned is that keeping track of your spending is very helpful and useful, it saves me time and money. I feel good knowing my monthly income is more than enough for the expenses I have. After really looking into my income and the amount of time I take to do my jobs; I have come to realize that for the amount of time I take I have a really good income. I’m glad I figured out how to budget correctly and efficiently.

This is definitely the shortest assignment I have ever been given, but overall learning how to budget better was very useful.

In this week’s history essay I will be writing about the fifth President of the United States, James Monroe. What I will be getting into exactly is: Monroe’s early life and his experience in the American Revolution, his start in a political career, his presidency, and his later life and death.

Life and Experience in the American Revolution

James Monroe was born on April 28th, 1758, to Spence and Elizabeth Jones Monroe, in Westmoreland County, Virginia(James was the last President of the”Virginia Dynasty,” this was because four of of the first five US Presidents were from the State). His father was a relatively successful planter and carpenter. His father’s family immigrated to the colonies in the mid 1600s, from Scotland.

His education began when his mother began tutoring him at the age of ten. Then from age eleven to sixteen he attended Campbell town Academy, and was a great student. In 1774, Monroe’s father passed away, because he was the eldest of his six siblings, he inherited the family plantation and became the man of the house. Around this time he enrolled himself into the College of William and Mary, but he dropped out a year later to join Continental Army, in 1775; he never returned back to school to finish his education.

In the army he was given an officer’s commission, because of his status and education. During the battle of Trenton, he was seriously wounded in his shoulder thanks to a bullet which had severed an artery. But he recovered from his injury, and gained the rank of lieutenant colonel. He served in the army till the end of the American Revolution in 1783.

His Political Beginnings and Career

After the American Revolution, Monroe studied law under the wing of Thomas Jefferson(he and Jefferson had a lifelong personal and professional friendship). His political career began officially in 1782 when he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates. He began serving for the Continental Congress from 1783-1786(at the time the Continental Congress was meeting up in the city of New York).

His personal life changed around this time, when he got married to Elizabeth Kortright(she was the daughter of a successful merchant from New York), on February 16th, 1786. The newly married couple moved to Fredericksburg, Virginia. 

In 1787 he served as an anti federalist delegate, after the Constitutional Convention. He opposed the ratification of the new constitution, because it lacked a bill of rights. He believed that a lack of a bill of rights would give the central government too much power.

In 1790 Monroe was elected to the Senate, and joined the Jeffersonian limited government camp. During Thomas Jefferson’s presidency, Monroe aided the negotiation on the Louisiana Purchase with France. Monroe served as Secretary of State and Secretary of War, during James Madison’s presidency during the War of 1812.

Monroe’s Presidency

In 1816 Monroe was elected as the fifth President of the United States(Madison had decided not to run for a third term, so that paved the way for Monroe), he had won eighty percent of the electoral votes, this left him far ahead of the other canadients.

After his election Monroe became a very popular President for these reasons:

1: He bought Florida from Spain.

2: The Treaty of 1819 gave the United States land in the Pacific Northwest.

3: And finally “The Era of Good Feelings,” that lasted until mid 1819.

But in 1819 Monroe’s aspect of his Presidency changed(before this it had been a good time economically), when an economic downfall struck, this downfall lasted until 1821. This downfall was caused because of bad inflation policies. Monroe also had to deal with the issues involved in admitting the now US State of Missouri, into the Union.

After the end of his first term in 1821, he ran again for President, even with all the struggles which I noted above, he was re-elected quite quickly. During his second Presidential term, he created the famous Monroe Doctrine(a new doctrine on foreign policy), in 1823.

The Monroe Doctrine stated that European nations were no longer allowed to interfere with the independent nations in the Americas. Also America was not allowed to interfere with the European nations and their colonies.

Later Life and Death

On July 4th, 1831, Monroe passed away, from tuberculosis and heart failure (he was the third US president who died on Independence day, or 4th of July). Before his death he supported the development of a colony in Africa, for freed African Americans. The today country of Liberia’s capital city, Monrovia, is named after Monroe.

Conclusion

Monroe accomplished quite a bit throughout his presidency, with the “Era of Good Feelings,” and the Monroe Doctrine. But he is also remembered for the fact that his Presidency marked the end of the First Party System in America and the end of the Founding Fathers.

Inflation is a government regulation that affects the value of money or currency, and anything else related to money.

This regulation can change the value of currency, making its value higher or lower. There has been some raises in the value of currency, but for the past while inflation has decreased the value of currency.

At the moment three US dollars can buy as much as ten cents did in 1989. There are so many incidents of this over the years. 

Something that can be affected by inflation are interest rates. Inflation can affect these interest rates because inflation can raise or lower the value of the currency, which raises or lowers the interest rate, this can be problematic for someone who has to pay off a lot of debt, especially if the value of the currency goes down, and the interest rates will be raised. 

This regulation even affects housing prices, car prices, gas prices, and even the food that you buy. So pretty much anything that has to do with money can get affected by inflation.

Inflation is a disadvantage for the regular working class and business owners, because inflation is unpredictable, and these people usually are not prepared for the economic changes that inflation causes.

But on the other hand, for the government, inflation is an advantage, since they are prepared for it and can use it for their own needs.

Personally I think inflation is a good and bad thing, but for the past while it has not been very good.

Conclusion

In this essay I wrote about inflation, how it affects the economy, and what I personally think about it.

In this week’s essay I will be writing about the life of a very famous historical military figure, Napoleon Bonaparte. What I will be getting into exactly is his early life, his military achievements, and his later life and death.

Early Life

Napoleon was born on August 15th, 1769, to Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino, on the Island of Corsica, France. He was the forth and second surviving child of his parents. Napoleon had a good education thanks to the fact that his father had gotten a very good job after being appointed as assessor of the judicial district of Ajaccio Corsica in 1771. Napoleon attended France’s College d’Autun, after he attended the military college of Brienne, where he was for five years, until he moved on to the military academy in Paris, which he excelled in greatly, so much so that he graduated after a year into the military academy at just sixteen years old! 

During the time he graduated from the military academy in Paris, he was given the rank of second lieutenant in the artillery. His father passed away around this time so he returned back home to Corsica, but in 1793 his sympathies with the French Revolution forced him and his family to flee from Corsica. He and his family began living in mainland France and also changed their name to Bonaparte, the French version of their name. Also in 1793 he was promoted to brigadier general.

After the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution, Napoleon was put into prison for more than ten days, because he had been a Jacobin supporter. 

Rise To Power

Napoleon was promoted to General of the Army of the West under the new Directory. The next year he began commanding the French Army in Italy. During the years 1796-1799, he had a series of very successful military campaigns, which helped France expand in power which also stabilized the military situation in France, this left him very popular amongst the French citizens.

In 1799 after his campaign to conquer Egypt(which was mostly a success), he returned back to France. In France he began pressuring to replace the Directory, which had never been a popular government. Because he had the military at his side the Directory was forced to resign, and Napoleon was appointed to become First Consul of the French government.

The first thing Napoleon began doing now that he was appointed, which gave him some political power, was to write a new French constitution, and to hold an election in France for Emperor of France. During the Election 99% favored Napoleon(this seems to be an impossible number), this was thanks to the fact that no one opposed him. After the election Napoleon was crowned Emperor of France by the Pope. This repaired France’s relations with the Church.

His Military Successes

Even though he was now Emperor he was almost always on the move, this was because he was moving from one successful military campaign to another, he forced alliances and conquered his enemies. By 1810 France was the most powerful country in Europe, but it also had its weaknesses. These weaknesses were thanks to the fact that the wars that Napoleon waged were quite expensive, which left France struggling financially. He eased this problem by selling Louisiana territory to the United States. But the financial problems were not the worst out of these weaknesses. The citizens of France were sick and tired of all this war, and they began losing trust in Napoleon, which was a huge problem.

His Downfall

His luck changed greatly in 1812 though when his army was defeated during the campaign to conquer Russia, thousands of soldiers died during the campaign, quite devastating. And in 1814 the Senate, which was under Napoleon announced that the Empire had now ended, a new ruler was appointed, Louis the 18th, who was related to the original line of kings in France. Napoleon was removed from his throne and forced into exile on the small Island of Elba in the Mediterraean, his wife and son fled to Vienna, Austria.

But Napoleon escaped Elba in 1815, and returned back to France. The citizens of France that heard of his escape and arrival welcomed him quite warmly, this helped him gain the throne again quite easily.

Napoleon like usual started another military campaign to fight against the British and Prussian forces, that were under General Wellington. This great battle is known as the battle of Waterloo, which was the last battle that Napoleon fought. Napoleon was defeated and the victorious British and Prussian troops forced him to abdicate his throne and go on exile to the very small island of Saint Helena.

Death

During his exile Napoleon’s health began to deteriorate, and he was beginning to show signs of a stomach ulcer or even stomach cancer, by 1821 he was so ill that he had to remain in bed. On May 5th, 1821 Napoleon died, during his exile.

Conclusion

Most of the land that Napoleon had conquered were given back to their original rulers. Even though in the end France did not gain that much territory the country did benefit thanks to the fact that Napoleon had ended the French Revolution. Even though he did not leave much of a legacy because he was too busy gaining territory for the empire, he is still remembered as one of the greatest military generals of all time.

Andrew Carnegie was the steel barron of his time. This is my essay on him.

Early Life and Background

Andrew was born in Scotland in November, 25th, 1835. He was born into a very poor weaving family. He lived in Scotland till 1848, when hard times hit Scotland, and starvation was a risk, he and his family immigrated to Pennsylvania.

Life in America wasn’t easy either, Andrew worked for twelve hours a day, six days a week, at a cotton mill for only twenty cents a day. He worked really hard. This benefited him greatly.

He then got a job at fifteen as a telegraph messenger boy, this job paid a little better. While working he would memorize all the locations of the businesses and the faces of the important business men. He became very good at his job and only in a year he got promoted as a telegraph operator and he was very good at this job too.

At eighteen he worked at the Pennsylvania Railroad company, and went through the ranks very quickly, thanks to his great work ethic. He got a good mentor who taught him business, and helped him make business investments. His investments paid off and he began investing in oil then in steel and iron after 1864.

His Nature of Business 

Andrew’s main business was steel, in 1889 he owned the biggest steel company in the world at the time. He sold this company though in 1901. He began dedicating his life to philanthropist work, which included libraries, scientific research, and the Carnegie Mellon University, Carnegie Hall. By the time of his death he had donated around five billion dollars in today’s dollars.

Why He Succeeded

The reason why he succeeded (in my opinion), is his work ethic, motivation to work hard, and problem solving ability. He never gave up and worked hard until the very end.