Personal Finance Syllabus
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Credit: 0.5
Prerequisite: None
Grades: 11-12
This course is designed to help students learn the basic skills needed to live “on your own!” Students will learn how to set up an effective filing system, open and maintain banking accounts, figure simple and compound interest, compare banking services, use electronic banking and other banking services, set goals and establish a budget, keep accurate financial records, save money for long-range goals, establish creditworthiness and a good credit rating, apply for a credit card, buy on an installment plan, obtain a loan, prepare income tax records, prepare for independent living, interpret different types of insurances, how to buy or lease an automobile, rights and responsibilities as a consumer. Students gain hands-on experience by using information from realistic source documents.
Personal Finance provides students an opportunity to learn by doing. You will complete activities that will prepare you to live on your own.
The “On Your Own for Life” activities in each online chapter are an important feature of the simulation because they instruct you to gather information from the newspaper, the library, area businesses in the community, and the internet. You are doing research that will benefit you in your own life.
The online simulation provides the opportunities to learn basic skills needed to live “on your own”. You will learn how to:
1. Set up and organize a filing system
2. Maintain a checking account
3. Set goals and establish a budget
4. Keep accurate financial records
5. Open a savings account and compare banking services
6. Applying for credit/establish a good credit rating
7. Preparing income tax records
8. Prepare for independent living
9. Look for an apartment and interpret a lease
10. Look at buying a house
11. Look at insurance (health, life, auto, and home)
12. Look at transportation options
13. Examine investing in the stock market
GRADING
60% Daily work
40% Tests & Quizzes
Late-Work Policy: Teachers will strive to assign homework and projects with due dates that provide ample time for students to time-manage and successfully complete the work. Students are expected to turn in work on the date it is due. Any work that is not turned in when it is collected on that due date will be marked as a zero and missing in the grade book. Assignments that are received by the end of the school day up to two days after the assigned due date will be scored at 75% of credit earned. Assignments that are received on the third or fourth date after the assigned due date will be scored at 50% of credit earned. Students will receive no credit for assignments received five or more days late. For example, an assignment due Monday would be worth 75% earned credit until the end of the school day Wednesday and 50% the end of the day Friday. Students are encouraged to contact teachers at least one day in advance with requests for extensions or accommodations. It is at the teacher’s discretion of the student need for extension to provide these accommodations.
Test and Quiz Retake Policy: Retakes will NOT be offered.
MATERIALS to bring to class daily:
1. “On Your Own” simulation packet
2. Pen and/or pencil
3. Pocket folder
4. Calculator (if you wish to use your own rather than the one on the computer)
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