see below

Cost 101

The simplest way to explain opportunity costs is to think of it as a trade-off, to utilize limited resources for one reason and which prohibits their use for something else (Brinkley, 2016). In preparation for my retirement in 2014 we began to make changes to our monthly budget, knowing I would not be returning to work after my active duty paychecks stopped coming. We realized if I returned to work, we would have to continue paying for daycare, as my son was four years old at the time. After working on the numbers, we realized it would be more beneficial for our family for me to stay at home and not continue paying daycare. Another benefit of me not working was we no longer had to worry about which one of us was going to take off work for appointments, missed school buses or stay at home when our children were sick. It just made more sense for me not to return to work.

After my son turned five, I considered returning to work. We again took a look at our budget and weighed the pros and cons of me returning to work. Kindergarten is only half day in Virginia Beach, so I would have had to get a job with a flexible schedule or have my son go to daycare before or after school (depending on which session he was going to). After careful consideration, we decided I would not go back to work and would homeschool my son instead. The costs we considered when we decided to homeschool was curriculum, homeschool club memberships, field trip costs (annual zoo and museum passes) and additional classes such as art or music (Braun, n.d.). Although we would have to come out of pocket to homeschool my son (since currently there is no federal aid or any tax breaks to homeschool) we came to the conclusion the benefit of homeschooling, spending time with my son and the experiences we would share outweighed the financial costs of homeschooling. For us, the trade-off of my son’s education and homeschool experience greatly outweighed me returning to work, having to pay daycare and the time I would spend away from my children.

We felt by homeschooling our son we would have the freedom to teach him about the world around him in a different way than the publicschool system would. We felt there are a plethora of resources available to homeschoolers and we planned to take advantage of all of these resources. While doing so, we get a stronger sense of community involvement.

Cost 102

I would like to discuss the 70.00 I pay each month for a homeowners warranty and how I think it has payed for itself just this year alone my marginal analysis is I am identifying the cost and benefits of this additional insurance the cost is 840.00 per year but I feel this is minimal when I look at the overall investment that I am protecting my family and our home by maintaining its upkeep. With a 75.00 deductible if used. I had to use this insurance when we had the real heavy rains in Virginia my roof was leaking and we called to see if the homeowners warranty covered this damage it did the bill would have been $500 if I would have had to pay out of pocket but I didn't have to thank goodness. We have had this insurance since we purchased this house because it was a flipper but we used this after the storms came and the year prior with some of our appliances braking down. The opportunity cost here was do I deploy for 6 months plus and worry about something breaking and my wife worrying how it is going to get fixed and who will do it how much or the peace of mind that it will be fixed with one phone call. So these are the 2 reasons that we have maintained a home owners policy.