IA ideas library
Finance and economics IA ideas: loans, savings, inflation and inequality
Money questions are personal, which makes them good for engagement: should you lease or buy, how long will a student loan take to pay off, is saving or investing better? The mathematics — compound interest, annuities, amortisation, geometric series, inequality measures — is squarely in the syllabus, especially for AI.
The trap is producing a worked example from a textbook. Use real current rates, compare realistic scenarios, and reflect on what the model leaves out (inflation, tax, risk, changing rates).
Finance & economics ideas (11)
- Should I lease or buy my first car?AI SLAI HLSolid
- Will I ever repay my student loan?AI SLAI HLAA SLSolid
- Is a longer mortgage ever the better deal?AI SLAI HLAA SLAA HLAccessible
- How much does it cost to start saving ten years later?AI SLAI HLAA SLAA HLAccessible
- Has my pocket money kept up with inflation?AI SLAA SLAI HLAccessible
- Measuring inequality: fitting Lorenz curves and computing the Gini coefficientAA SLAA HLAI SLAI HLSolid
- Is the euro–dollar exchange rate a random walk?AI SLAI HLAA HLAmbitious
- Contract or SIM-only? The real cost of a new phoneAI SLAA SLAccessible
- What price maximises profit at our school bake sale?AA SLAI SLAA HLAI HLSolid
- How fast do cars lose value? Modelling depreciation from listingsAI SLAI HLAA SLAccessible
- Where does e come from? Compounding more and more oftenAA SLAA HLSolid
Also relevant (10)
- How much is being near a station worth?AI SLAI HLAA SLSolid
- Does money buy a longer life? GDP and life expectancyAI SLAI HLAA SLAA HLSolid
- How many packs does it take to finish a sticker album?AA SLAA HLAI SLAI HLSolid
- How many extra tickets should an airline sell?AA SLAA HLAI SLAI HLSolid
- Is a lottery ticket ever worth buying? Expected value and rolloversAA SLAA HLAI SLAI HLAccessible
- Is solar power growing logistically?AA SLAA HLAI SLAI HLSolid
- How much does a cold month cost my family?AI SLAI HLAA SLAccessible
- What is the cheapest way to connect villages with fibre broadband?AI HLAI SLSolid
- Will one phone brand take over? Brand loyalty as a Markov chainAI HLSolid
- How many attempts until the rare item? Drop rates and pity systemsAA SLAA HLAI SLAI HLSolid
Frequently asked questions
Is compound interest enough maths for an IA?
On its own, usually not. Combine it with something that needs thought — deriving the annuity formula from a geometric series, sensitivity analysis, comparing scenarios over time, or fitting a model to real price data.
Where can I find reliable financial data?
Central banks and statistics offices: FRED, the ECB Data Portal, the ONS and Eurostat all publish interest rates, inflation and prices with CSV downloads.
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