#Budgeting, #Economics - Why is it that governments can run huge deficits for years? Why can't I?

Question

So my budget has a deficit - I apparently spend more than I earn. But governments do it all the time. Why can't I?

Answer

There is a world of difference between using a currency (people/companies) and issuing a currency (governments).

Analysis

There is a world of difference between the way money flows affect a government/country and the way they affect a person/family.

With a person/family, and even with a company, financial health is dictated directly by the ability to have more income than expenses. When expenses are bigger than income, and particularly when we're talking about a long period of time or a large deficit income, then assets will decline (bank balances, investments, etc, will drop) or liabilities will increase (bigger and bigger credit card balances, bigger loans from the bank, etc). And unfortunately there's really no way around it - if expenses are higher than income, there's a problem that is either front and centre or is waiting in the wings.

A government is a different animal. While people/families/companies use money, governments issue it. From that situation comes how governments can operate at a deficit for so long.

Think of government's operations this way - when governments take in money (taxes are one frequent way), they are taking money out of the nation's monetary system. When governments spend money (whether on the military, a social safety net, or any other way), money is put into the nation's monetary system. One of the goals of government is to maintain a healthy balance between taking money in putting money back into the system.

So what happens in the case of a government that is constantly spending more than it's taking in? Let's walk this one through to see what happens:

• Government spends more than it takes in, which puts more money into the economy 
• More money in the economy means that businesses and people have more money (on average) to spend
• With more money to spend, businesses and people desire to buy more things
• Demand for things to buy (more and more buyers) goes up, also risk tolerance increases (which basically means that more and more people will be willing to put more and more money into stocks and investments that are riskier and riskier)
• With demand increasing and supply not catching up, prices rise (which is called "inflation")

Inflation is a topic unto itself, but suffice it to say for now that low inflation is a mixed bag of good and bad and high inflation is (pretty much) all bad.

And so when governments overspend on a routine basis, there are ripples throughout the nation's economy, some of which are good and some which are bad. When people and companies do it, they simply end up in a bad situation.

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As always, questions and comments welcome!

#Budgeting, #Household Math - Budgeting - what happens if the numbers add up to bad news?

Question

I've done the steps of listing out my expenses, putting in the numbers, and then identifying my income and it turns out my expenses are higher than my income. What now?

Answer

First verify the numbers are correct. Then begin to address areas that can be improved. Lastly, be open to change - if there's a large deficit, you may have to be open to things such as government assistance and the like.

Analysis

Before we get into what might you do to adjust your living situation, let's first verify that the budget is accurate. Ironically, the bigger the difference between income and expenses, the easier it'll be to verify the numbers.

If the difference is quite big and it has been happening for some period of time (and the budget is accurate), then the money that you've been spending has to have been coming from somewhere. Are your credit card balances increasing? or is there a running balance on your cards? Is your bank balance or investments balance decreasing? Are you borrowing larger and larger sums of money and having difficulties paying it back?

Again, the bigger the deficit and the longer the period of time this has been the case, the easier it'll be to see where the money is coming from. (If it turns out your bank, investment, and debt balances are not changing, then it may be the case that something has been left out of the budget or there's a math mistake).

Let's say you've verified the numbers and they are correct - expenses are higher than income. What can be done?

First off, stop and breathe. Be proud of yourself for bringing the situation to light. Coming to grips with a difficult to accept situation is praise-worthy, so take a minute and give thanks that you now have the knowledge that your financial health isn't what you thought it was.

Ok - now we can address the situation. What is the magnitude of the deficit?  If it's small then it may be that eating out a little less or other types of luxuries can be cut back and that will solve the problem.

With deficits that are larger, it'll require more work. For some people, it may require obtaining outside help, such as public assistance, to be able to keep some version of your financial life intact. For others, it may require a severe downsizing or moving from a high-cost location to a lower-cost location.

Again, the most important thing is to work with what is known. The worst thing to do when faced with a deficit in the budget is to ignore it and pretend it doesn't exist. That is the road to disaster.

So what if income is higher than expenses? Great news! Now - did you verify the budget is correct by checking your bank/investment/debt balances? Are they moving in the correct directions? If so - good! If not - you've missed something!

With the budget numbers in front of you, do you see anything that looks like you could do better? Is the dining out budget too high or is it right on? Are there opportunities to save even more money?

With all of this, remember that the budget is a living document in that it should be changed when there is a life change.

This post is part of a series on budgeting - Budgeting 101

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As always, questions and comments always welcome!

#Budgeting, #Household Math - Budgeting - Income

Question

I've done the budget process for expenses. Now what?

Answer

Let's now add income to the budget...

Analysis

It's time to add in the Income numbers into the budget and oddly enough this can be the harder part of the budgeting process.

With expenses, we want to identify all the expenses we incur over the course of a year, then display that on a monthly basis (we've done that part in prior posts). We use the Accrual Method to identify expenses as they are incurred so as to prevent surprises. Surprise expenses are no fun.

With income, we want to identify it as it's received - the Cash Method. One of the tendencies in budgeting is to project a rosy future where the promised raise at work is a sure thing, where that tax refund will be large, where a long lost relative died in the Congo ages ago and selfless lawyers have searched for years to find the heir - and it's you. We don't want to budget that in - if it happens, great and if it's periodic, we can budget it in (if the raise does indeed happen, adjust your budget!). Surprise income is a good thing.

For most people, income starts and ends with a salary. When we budget, we're going to want to budget the "take home pay" - not the gross pay. It's great that you have a job that pays $50,000 per year, but if you only take home $40,000 of that, that's what goes in the budget.

This also goes for people who receive pensions and other sources of periodic payments. Include what you know you are receiving. If and when an announcement comes that it's being changed, adjust your budget accordingly - if it's good news and the pension is going up, adjust the budget when you actually have that first payment in the bank. If it's bad news and it's going down, adjust the budget immediately and see if you'll need to change anything in your lifestyle.

Another common way to "overstate income" is to look to bank interest and other sources of investment income like that. Unless you have your finances set up to be living off of investment income (and we'll talk about that below), don't include it.

Ok - people who live on investment income, people who own a small business, or otherwise whose income varies. It's important to pick an income number that focuses more on the lean months than the rich ones - and it may be the case that budgeting into the expense side of things a "float" that income overages can go into and that reverse during the lean months. Doing something like that will require constant vigilance on that account - it's been set up to be there when income is lower, so you need to make sure it's nice and full when income is plentiful.

I've updated the budget example here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kCtMSNnKUXhvJT9yif5wtl5jbEsmyFz9mQ-IV62_U4g/edit?usp=sharing

and you'll note that we have a situation where the income is less than the expenses. We'll talk about that situation in the next post.

This post is part of a series on budgeting - Budgeting 101

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As always, questions and comments are welcome!

#Budgeting, #Household Math - Budgeting - Why?

Question

Why should I budget? What's the point?

Answer

Much like a doctor's visit when you feel ill or are having a check-up, a budget acts that way for someone's financial life.

Analysis

There are many ways to talk about budgeting and finances that keep the topic strictly focused on dollars and cents (or whatever the names are for your particular currency!). But I'd like to talk about it in a more holistic fashion.

Let's talk about "health". What does it mean to be "healthy"?

Probably the most common way "health" is referred to is with "physical health". When we're ill, we reach for some sort of medicine (whether traditional, Eastern, Western, alternative, or whatever modality you typically reach for) or perhaps go to see a medical professional. Perhaps we even see the doctor once per year for a physical to help find illnesses that are lurking silently within our bodies.

There are other types of health as well. Mental health, for instance, refers to the health of the mind, the intellect, and the emotions. Spiritual health refers to feeling a healthy connection to God/the Universe/Life/whatever name you choose to refer to it.

All these different types of health all impact one another. For example, poor physical health can lead to depression (poor mental health) and poor spiritual health ("Why do bad things happen to good people?"). Each of these factors can impact the others.

And so now let's talk about "Financial health". Being unhealthy financially can (and I'd argue, will) impact your other health aspects: physical, mental, spiritual, and others. And conversely, being unhealthy in other areas of your life can (and again I'd argue, will) affect your financial health.

Aside from the more obvious examples of how your financial life can be impacted (physical sickness making employment difficult, reducing income and increasing medical bills), there are the sneaky ways that financial health can be impacted. One example is of "retail therapy" - spending money in order to feel better. And this type of therapy can sneak up on us - online shopping, buying large amounts of "comfort foods" and "comfort drinks" - think high fat, moocho-yummy coffee drinks all the way up to alcoholic drinks - and other types of purchases. All of this can turn into a vicious cycle where spending is conducted to counteract the feeling of depression from an unhealthy financial situation.

And this is where a budget can help.

A budget is akin to going to the doctor - it allows for an examination of what is going on in someone's financial life, to have facts and not feelings on something (it's far better to know that way too much money is being spent on Starbucks than simply feeling that it's the case).

A budget is also akin to getting a physical - financial health can be examined and areas found that can be tweaked so that even better financial health can be achieved.

This post is part of a series on budgeting - Budgeting 101

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As always, questions and comments are always welcome!

#Budgeting, #Household Math - Budgeting... What's it good for?

Question

It's great that I read everywhere about the need for a budget, but what is it?

Answer

A budget is a tool that people use to figure out their financial health.

Analysis

I like this definition enough that I'll repeat it:

A budget is a tool that people use to figure out their financial health.

The most basic question that can be answered is "Am I living within my means?". More complicated questions can also be answered, such as "Can I afford that expensive thing?". Questions involving more involved financial questions, such as "At what age can I retire?", will probably require a Personal Wealth Plan of some sort - simply analyzing monthly spending probably will be insufficient to answer that kind of question.

The main idea behind the budget is to see where your financial strengths and weaknesses are. Where there are financial weaknesses, you can then develop strategies to deal with them. For instance, if it turns out expenses are higher than income, the budget can identify that that is the case and then steps can be taken to address it.

To budget, we look at the two sides of financial life - Money coming In and Money going Out. In future posts, I'll reference topics in the post about the Statement of Cash Flows for a business because there will be some overlap in concepts.

The first place to start is to think about your expenses and how often they occur. For most people, the big expenses occur once per month (rent/mortgage payment usually being the biggest of them all). And so, in general, it's best to work with a budget that looks at a monthly timeframe (we'll deal with non-monthly expenses and incomes in their respective sections).

I think the last thing to say about what a budget is is that it's something that can be quite individualized. Depending on how exacting you'd like to be can greatly affect the budget. What are the items you want to track? What are the items you don't want to track? Generally if there is a lot of guilt and shame involved, like perhaps the "amount of money spent at coffee shops" or "the amount of money spent online shopping", those are items that need the most attention!

In future posts, we'll talk about the How of budgeting...

This post is part of a series on budgeting - Budgeting 101

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As always, comments and questions are welcome!

#Budgeting, #Household Math - Household budgeting - Needs vs Wants...

Question

What do you mean, when talking about buying stuff, by Needs and Wants?

Answer

While there are many different opinions on what this means, my own take on it is that Needs are the rational, left-brain framework of what it is that we're looking for when buying something, and Wants are the creative force that actually make the decisions.

Analysis

Before I dive into this question, let me preface it by saying that this is my own thought in this.

It seems to me that, even when we scratch the surface of this topic, that things can get pretty muddled pretty quickly. Why? Follow me down the rabbit hole...

Let's talk basics first. What is it, at least according to Maslow (here's a link to a wikipedia article about him and his theory), that we need? First come the physiological needs, such as Food and Shelter. So let's dive in on shelter.

We know we need shelter so let's now collectively visit a house (envision whatever type of house you'd like). So here's the question - do you need that particular house? And the answer should be pretty clear - no, you don't need that particular house. And in fact we can do this exercise for any given house, condo, apartment, shack, cabin, or hole in the wall. At some point, to make a decision as to what we'd like for shelter, we need to act on Want. Which runs counter to what people say you should do so as to be "financially responsible".

But it's true - in order to meet Needs, the actual decisions are made based on Wants.

And let's face it - Wants are fun! Wants are cool! It's Wants that put that kickin' stereo system in the black Corvette you just bought. Whereas Needs are just... boring. Rational. In a way, you can even look at Needs and Wants as the different sides of the brain fighting it out: the Left side dictating Needs and the Right side swimming in the glorious glow of Want.

It's when we act on Want too much that people get into trouble (we Need to keep a check on our Wants!). I think Needs help to establish a framework for certain Wants (such as a "nice house" or "a cool car"), but they also need to act as a limiting impulse on the relatively expansive feeling of Want. Because if we give in to Want too much or too often, we'll lose sight of the Need we're trying to fill.

And so purchases should be made with both sides, if not in total agreement, at least being allowed to chime in and argue their respective sides. For example, when buying a car, identifying the Needs surrounding the purchase (means of transport, protection from the elements, move many people plus cargo, practical, not too expensive, good with gas, etc) and also the Wants (good acceleration, cool colour, sporty, fun, etc) and finding a balance that is manageable.

This type of activity, of taking time to full consider a purchase from a Needs and a Wants standpoint is an aspect of what is often called "Being Mindful".

This post is part of a series on budgeting - Budgeting 101

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As always, comments and questions are welcome!

#Accounting - The Statement of Cash Flows

Question

If "cash is King" like you said in your earlier post, then is there an accounting statement that shows cash use by a company?

Answer

Yes there is - the Statement of Cash Flows

Analsys

I did previously state that there is an adage in business that "cash is King". And you are absolutely right that there needs to be a report that shows the cash condition of a business. To that end, a report was created that is called the Statement of Cash Flows and it specifically tracks the cash activity of a business. Since it is a report that shows change over a period of time, it is akin to an Income Statement in that it shows a range of time rather than a snapshot of a status (like the Balance Sheet).

The way the report works is that it starts with a company's Net Income number, which is generated under the accrual method of accounting. It then dissects that number, looking at all the changes to cash (and, in fact, the entire balance sheet) due to Operations, Investment activity, and Financial activity.

In the Operation section of the report, all the changes that happen on the balance sheet (say for instance that Receivables increase by $10,000, that number is backed out. If Payables increase by $10,000, that activity is also backed out) that relate to Short Term assets and liabilities (short term meaning those assets and liabilities that are anticipated to be held for one year or less).

In the Investment section of the report, all the changes that happened related to the Long term assets are shown. This will relate to the purchase and sale of fixed assets and other long term assets.

The Finance section of the report shows all the changes related to Long term liabilities and equity, such as changes in bank loans (acquisition of new funding and the paying off of balances), and also changes related to the issuance/cancellation of shares.

All these changes are applied to the cash balance at the end of the prior term and results in the new cash balance (at then end of the current term).

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Comments and questions always welcome!

#Accounting - Cash accounting vs accrual accounting - what's the difference?

Question

What's the difference between cash accounting and accrual accounting?

Answer

Cash accounting focuses on transactions being recorded as monies are received/paid out. Accrual accounting focuses on transactions being recorded as monies are earned/obliged to be paid out.

Analysis

There is an adage in business that "Cash is King" - it means that no matter what else you have - the number of machines that produce products, the number of buildings, the amount of land, etc - that if you don't have cash, your business is in big trouble.

Because of this, and also because it's by far the simpler method to keep track of a business' books, people will use the Cash Method of Accounting. In essence, you only track transactions that involve cash when you actually receive/pay out that cash.

For instance, if a company sells $100,000,000 worth of product on account, under cash accounting, that sale is only recorded when the cash is received. Before then, for the purposes of bookkeeping, it hasn't happened. On the flip side, if a company borrowed $100,000,000 and the payment is due next week, that payment is recorded until the cash is paid. Even if it's paid late.

As you might suspect, while being by far simpler to use (which is why many small businesses use it), cash accounting can severely distort the apparent financial condition of the company. And so another method arose to help better reflect the actual condition of the business - the Accrual Method of Accounting. Using the accrual method, transactions are recorded when amounts are earned (regardless of actually receiving the cash) or obliged to be paid out (again, regardless of actually paying out the cash).

For instance, if the company makes a large sale, the account Sales is increased (Credited). To reflect the fact that money is now owed to the company, a Receivable is also increased (Debited). On the flip side, as interest on that huge loan builds up, it is recorded as a Payable (Credit) and an Expense (Debited).

When financial statements are prepared, an accountant needs to make sure that all amounts that are accruing (such as that interest expense, or as another example a salary expense for salaries earned by workers but as yet unpaid) is updated as of the date of those financial statements.

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Comments and questions always welcome and appreciated!

#Accounting - What's a Balance Sheet? What's an Income Statement?

Question

What's a Balance Sheet? What's an Income Statement?

Answer

They are the two most basic accounting statements/reports. The Balance Sheet answers "Where are we right now?" and the Income Statement answers "How much did we earn over a given period of time?"

Analysis

 I've talked about T accounts and Debits and Credits in prior posts. The Balance Sheet and Income Statement arise directly from the activity recorded in the T accounts.

When preparing an Income Statement, we look at a period of time. For instance, a statement that is being done to show the activity for the year ending December 31, 2018 will be titled "Income Statement for the year, ending December 31, 2018). The report itself lists Sales and other Income related to the ordinary course of business (natural Credits) and subtracts from that Expenses and other costs related to the earning of that income (natural Debits).

When preparing a Balance Sheet, we pick a date that the statement will be of. For instance, a statement that is being done as of December 31, 2018 is titled "Balance Sheet as of December 31, 2018" (exciting stuff, right?). The report itself lists Assets on one side (the natural Debits) and the Liabilities and Equity on the other side (the natural Credits). The activity from the Income Statement is listed as a change in Equity.

Together, the two reports show a company's activity from ordinary activity and can be of tremendous help in guiding management and other decision makers on the health and activity of the business.

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Feel free to ask a question!

#Accounting - What are Assets? Liabilities? Equity? Income? Expenses?

Question

In accounting, what are Assets? Liabilities? Equity? Income? Expenses?

Answer

• The simple way to think of Assets is to think of them as things the company owns. If the company owns equipment, furniture, the building it's in, it's cash - these are all assets. Sometimes things that are assets are not held by the company - money owed it by customers is an asset (called a Receivable) - the company may not have the money in-house but the fact that it is owed money means that it owns the right to that money. Assets tend to be natural Debit accounts.

• Again, working within simple explanations, Liabilities are those things that the company owes. When the company buys things on credit or takes out a loan, these are amounts that are owed by the company to other entities. Liabilities tend to be natural Credit accounts.

• The difference between what the company owns and what it owes is what the company is worth. This is its Equity (oftentimes called Net Equity, Net Worth, Owner's Equity, and other similar names). When a company is incorporated, the shares of the company are part of the equity (there will be some mention as to the equity per share or a way given to calculate it). Equity tends to be natural Credit accounts. 

• The way a company brings in money or other assets through the ordinary course of affairs is called Income (note that this is different than when a company does things such as selling an investment or raises money by obtaining a loan. These activities, while it will bring in money, is classified under Investing and Financing activities). Sales tend to be natural Credit accounts.

• In like manner, when money or other assets are expended through the ordinary course of affairs, these are called Expenses. Expenses tend to be natural Debit accounts.

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Feel free to ask a question!

#Accounting - What's a Debit? What's a Credit?

Question

What's a Debit? What's a Credit?

Answer

 Debit is the Left Side of a T account. Credit is the Right Side.

Analysis

Remember the post about T accounts? Debits refer to the numbers on the left hand side of the vertical bar of the T and Credits refer to the numbers on the right hand side. It's as simple as that - different names for Left and Right.

When I was first learning the concept, at every opportunity I could find, I'd refer to things on my Debit side and on my Credit side. I'd turn Debit and Credit in a car. It was the only way to get the concept firmly planted in my head.

Accounts will hold what is sometimes termed "natural" balances. Assets and Income are typically natural debit balances (that is, to increase the account, we debit it) and Liabilities, Equity, and Expense accounts are typically natural credit balances (that is, to increase the account, we credit it).

At this point, you might be wondering why it is that when you are getting money back from a vendor (say like from the phone company), they say they're going to "credit your account". Or even when you deposit money into your bank account, it's called "crediting your account". Why is that?

The answer is that the customer service people are working from the viewpoint of the company. When they are giving you money, they are decreasing the company's money, or in other words, they are decreasing the company's assets, and that is a credit.

For a bank, it's a bit different. When someone makes a deposit into a bank, we are increasing the bank's assets, which is a debit. But what the bank is really interested in is the fact that they now owe you, the depositor, that same amount of money you just deposited in. In fact, when you, the depositor, get your bank statement saying that you have $1,000 in the bank, the bank has a liability for that amount (we'll talk more about liabilities in a future post) - they owe you that money at a time of your choosing. And so the teller, in working with your assets, is in actuality working with the bank's liabilities. When you had the teller money, you are increasing the bank's liabilities, which is a credit.

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As always, please feel free to ask a question!

#Accounting - What's a T account? Why use them?

Question

What's a T account? And why use them?

Answer

A T account is a simple but effective way to organize the activity in any given account.

Analysis

Let's first talk about accounts. An account is a way to gather similar activity in one place. For instance, over the course of a year, let's have Sample Co. have a number of sales throughout the year. We can sum up those sales to see the sales activity for the year. For an example, let's have Sample Co have sales of $100,000 for the year.

This $100,000 sales figure is made up of smaller sales throughout the year. We list them individually as they happen. A part of that list might look like this:

$500
$1000
$250
$300

and so on.

Some transactions will increase the balance of the account and some will decrease that balance. Take the account Cash for instance - as sales are made, cash comes into the company. As inventory is purchased, salaries are paid, and other outflows are accounted for, the balance of the account decreases.

One way to show this would be to list out all the transactions in a single list:

 $1,000
-$350
-$15
-$25
$300

and so on. Which can get messy.

Another way to look at the accounts is to put all the amounts that increase the account in one list and all the amounts that decrease the account in another list. To save space and to keep things organized, we can draw a T, put the account name above the crossbar of the T, and have amounts on one side of the T's vertical line increase the account and on the other side put those amounts that decrease it. It'll look something like this:


        Cash
------------------
$1000 |
           | $350
           | $15
           | $25
$300   |

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As always, if you have a question, please ask!

#Household math - How many times use a purchase to make it worthwhile...?

Question:

If I buy a table for 590 THB and I want to use it for art. Paying for a latte in a shop is approx. 60 baht per beverage and I consume anywhere from one to three lattes when I draw. How many days of drawing at home will it take for me to pay off the table?

Answer

A minimum of 4 art days out, a maximum of 10 art days out.

Analysis:

Let's first talk about Sunk Cost, which is the concept that once money is spent, it's gone. Nothing you do subsequent to buying the table is going to make the money come back. And so any decision you make concerning having coffee has no bearing on the cost of the table.

Now to the question at hand.

If we look at the number of lattes it takes to exceed the cost of the table, that's:

cost of the table/cost of a coffee = coffees equal to the cost of the table:

(on the 10th coffee, the coffees are worth more).

If we assume 1 coffee per art day, that's a maximum of 10 art days out.
If we assume 2 coffees per art day, that's 5 art days out.
If we assume 3 coffees per art day, that's 4 art days out.

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Please feel free to comment or ask a question!

#Admin - A new blog, a new beginning, a new conversation on math-y topics!

Hello one and all and welcome to Math Fact-orials!

In this post, the first of this blog, I'll talk quickly about me, this blog, what I hope to achieve, and all that.

About me

I love thinking and learning and sharing what I'm thinking and learning. Most recently, I was a Hero and Featured Answer Reviewer (Algebra, PreAlgebra, English Grammar) with www.Socratic.org, with (at the time of this writing, with roughly 2 weeks of life left in Socratic):

- over 890,000 views,
- 2400 answers, and
- 700 edits of existing answers.

But since that website is currently scheduled to be shuttered mid-August 2018, I've decided to start my own Question and Answer site (i.e. this blog) that will focus on things I find important/interesting/fun/etc.

Some more things about me:

- Formerly a Certified Public Accountant (in the USA) and a Chartered Accountant (in Canada)
- Holder of a Life Coaching certificate
- Spent a few years in the US Navy as a Supply Corps officer

About the blog

While I don't want to set anything in stone (this is a living blog after all, so it will morph and change as I do), there are a couple of areas I'll tend to focus on at the start: Combinametrics (or the number of ways of doing/arranging/organizing things) and something I'll call Life Math - this will encompass things like Business Math, Budgeting, Investing, Accounting, Financing, and all those non-sexy math topics that academics tend to shun. Life Math, by its very nature, is a bit more "squishy" than academic math - there typically are more "squishy" answers than in academic math. For instance, is a 10% discount on a shirt a good discount? It might be, but then again it might not be - it's up to the reader to decide. But in these kinds of questions and answers, I'll do my best to lay out some things to think about.

I intend to right about how to approach a problem as the first part of any blog post, and then to have an "Answer Key" below, which will show the various answers with changes in the starting facts. For instance, if a shirt that costs $30 has a 10% discount (with a final cost to the customer of $27 before sales tax), the same process will work if the shirt is $40 and there's a 20% discount (with a final cost of $32 before sales tax).

Questions are very welcome!!!

If you have math questions, please do ask! Post a comment (I approve all comments) and I'll be sure to respond and write on the blog in response. No names/specific locations will be used and so don't worry about anonymity!

And I think that just about does it - so Welcome! and I hope to hear from you.

Parz

Update, 22 Aug 2018

Through editing and updating the organization of the blog, I'm hoping it'll be more useful (and easier to find the information you are interested in!). Links, labels, and subjects are all being edited, reworked, and otherwise made better. Get ready for Math Fact-orials 2.0! (or maybe just 2!... - factorials and decimal points don't get along very well...)