Get A Financial Life : Personal Finance

Despite the importance of finance, accounting, and consumer intelligence, these topics are typically neglected in high schools. Unfortunately, personal finance is often learned by trial and error. The problem with this method of learning is that it only takes one costly financial mishap to set you back for years. This is why I created a basic personal finance book for total beginners. With these concepts you can use the other books in the Smart Money series to further build your knowledge of personal finance topics.

The context of the lesson is three fold: First, to enhance literacy and utilize digital tools to research, communicate, produce and present. Developing these skills will be of immediate use, as these students have at least two more years in an academic setting. Secondly, they will be acquiring life skills as they define and internalize the concepts of budgeting and personal finance. Thirdly, in the broadest context, they will be able to apply this knowledge when they go forth into the job market and begin making short and long term investments. This lesson is appropriate and timely for these students as they will soon be leaving high school and embarking on various life and career paths. It is of critical importance that they understand how credit works and how to be fiscally responsible early on, so that they can avoid making bad decisions that have long-term and life altering ramifications. This demonstrates my commitment to their lifelong ability to learn and use information

Whew, where to start? The personal finance class through Dame Ramsey’s Foundations in Personal Finance textbook and video series really had a lot of useful information, and it is hard to pick out the most impactful chapters and topics. However, I think the most important stuff for me was his five foundations for financial success, which were reinforced throughout the course. I am not downplaying the other important stuff in the course, including learning about the history of credit, budgeting, consumer awareness, investing, insurance, and taxes, but I think that mastering the fundamentals is important, which is why I am choosing to highlight them in this paper.

This course provides an overview of the elements necessary for effective personal financial planning and the opportunity to apply the techniques and strategies essential to this understanding. Primary areas of study include creating and managing a personal budget, understanding and paying taxes, working with financial institutions, wise use of credit cards and consumer loans, financing automobiles and homes, and the use of insurance for protecting one’s family and property.

c. Smaller payments mean more time in debt. d. Your lower interest loans also get rolled into the deal so you end up with minimal savings.

When going off to college many students become unaware of how much they are spending, or how much things actually cost. Budgeting for necessary day to day items is hard to do when sometimes we forget our priorities, and forget the difference between what we may want and what we need. Managing is one of the hardest things to do as a college student because, before going to college many students do not really understand or realize how much certain items are and how much we actually use; such as: groceries, soaps, laundry detergent, etc. This is why money management and budget is many times hard for college students to

Teen Finance Series. Gale Virtual Reference Library, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX7183600015/GVRL?u=odl_brokenahs&sid=GVRL&xid=1d30bff9. Accessed 16 Jan.

The goal of this course is to get you thinking about personal finance issues at a point in your life when you still have time to benefit from the power of time in generating wealth to accomplish your other life goals. The financial decisions you make early in life with determine in great extent the quality of life you will enjoy later, especially given the turbulent and uncertain economic conditions. Money isn’t everything, but a lack of it will impact almost every aspect of your life and those who surround you.

Future initiatives with financial education can change the landscape of an individual’s life and the economy in which we live. If there is limited focus on learning about personal finances we continue to set our economy up for constant failure. There is a substantial amounts of education provided to school age children that does not directly impact their financial education for their future. In high school individuals learn

Chapter 8 addresses the financial questions an entrepreneur must ask before starting a business venture or expanding an existing one. Such questions as how you plan to use the money and how you plan to return the money back to the lenders. When carefully use of loans can help boost the business. There are also demerits coupled with borrowing money, such as interest charges and debt can inhibit growth.

My introduction to the world of personal financial planning began in the summer of 2012 when I enrolled in a Personal Financial Management course at The University of Texas at Dallas. Prior to this course, personal finance was a topic that I had always taken a deep-rooted

Trying to manage your budget is knowing your credit score, how much money is on your debit card and having insurance to help us save and budget our money. The impact of of a credit score “is a number indicates to lenders to repay the loan you borrow”(Investopedia, para1). If you have good credit score then you can mortgage a house but if you have bad credit will you’ll keep renting a house or not live in a house. With a credit card if you’re using it to make a purchase then you promise to pay the money back, also to that’s how you boost your credit score up. With a debit card if you purchase something it comes out of the account electronically.

Even with these changes some may still doubt why these classes are important, but here are a few statistics about the financial literacy of today’s adults. According to Caitlin Blake of Concordia University, “Only 39% of adults make budgets and track their spending.” and “32% of adults do not save a portion of their annual income.” (Blake) These statistics show that a growing number of adults either don’t use, or haven’t acquired the skills needed to be financially wise. Even with these numbers still being a minority at the moment, a possible outcome in the future could be a majority of adults struggling to manage personal finances. Though many schools still do offer courses to teach these types of skills, many do not require them past middle school. With these classes still being electives, they are still highly susceptible to being eliminated from schools course offerings and, students opting not to take them. Now off the topic of financial literally or; therefore, the lack of, we now move on the topic of

In a world placing greater emphasis on monetary earnings, students are expected to pick careers that result in high earnings and attend universities with high costs for the prestige that comes with the degree, but the cost falls on the student while the hopes of society cost nothing at all. The aspirations of young students striving for a higher education in order to obtain a better future are crushed by the crippling debt that follows graduation. This astronomical debt creates a challenge of balancing personal budgeting to get by for the month with paying down the loans of the education that was supposed to be a stepping stone and not a weight.

While taking the personal finance course this past spring, I learned many valuable lessons that will greatly assist me throughout my life. One lesson I learned is the importance of paying yourself first. To put this into action, I will save money in an emergency fund to have enough money to live comfortably for 3 to 6 months, in case of emergency. Furthermore, this course has taught me the importance of budgeting. Using budgeting, I will make a plan for my money, so I can avoid over drafting and bouncing checks. Another lesson personal finance taught me is to pay all bills and loans on time to develop a good FICO credit score, which is what companies use to evaluate the risk of loaning to an individual. Knowing this information will help me