Personal Finance Course Analysis

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.

As you can see there are many ways to spend using credit. There are just as many ways to build your debt and ruin your credit report. Lenders may end up repossessing things you have purchased and collecting the things you’ve placed on collateral and eventually causing you to file for bankruptcy if you cannot pay your debt. Debt can be useful

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.

My biggest goal to build my credit score is to pay my bills on time. This may seem like the most obvious or too-easy way, but I believe to get a good score you need a good foundation. I will make it a priority to get my payments in such as, paying my phone bill, insurance and car bills on time. I know that even a day late on

Students are asked simple personal finance questions, yet most are uneducated about what the right answers are to those questions. Knowing about personal finance before adulthood can help future generations not repeat the same mistakes as past generations. People who don't have a basic knowledge about financial literacy tend to not plan for retirement, and are more likely to borrow money with high interests rates not knowing how much it will cost them (Shepard). Learning to create a budget, saving money, and using a credit card with understanding the fees and the interest rate are basic concepts but are usually misunderstood until later in life. Personal finance questions come up in adults life's everyday, however some adults can find these questions to be very difficult. By educating young adults with every day life situations about personal finance knowledge before adulthood can eliminate poor financial decisions later in

So often we hear about teaching the whole child. Today, more than ever, personal finance knowledge and awareness are a critical part of what it means to teach the whole child.

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.

During the Financial Fitness module I learned more about my credit score and how to improve it. I also learned the different ways a credit score is made up of. A credit score is usually used to see how likely you are to pay back money that you owe. Usually banks use them to issue loans or credit card companies’ use it to decide if they want to give you a credit card and how much they want to set your limit to. It is important to build your credit score up because it will benefit you in the future when you need to borrow money or even get a job. Some jobs check your credit score before they hire you. Also if you don’t pay a bill your credit score will go down after 30 days past the due date. Some advice I learn was to get a credit card when

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

You should be paying all your bills on time consistently. Even if you have plenty of money, late payments reflect badly on your credit history. If you have too much debt for your income, you need to work at paying it down. If you are living beyond your means, you need to change that fact. Although financial products may help, this is mostly about earning more and spending less.

Pay your bills on time. When you are late making payments this has a significant effect on your credit score. If you can’t pay your bills on time how are you to be able to pay creditors. I know it can be hard and temptation is strong, but remember my previous articles regarding budget planning? Put those suggestions into place, if they are already in place awesome. You know that random shopping sprees and impulse purchases are out of the question. This behavior normally results

A good credit score is important in order to get the loans and interest rates that you want. To financial institutions, a credit score reflects the likelihood that you will repay what they lend you (i.e. mortgage, credit cards, car loans, student loans, etc.). Therefore, one of the most important ways to improve and keep a good credit score is to always, always pay your bills on time. Missing a payment or paying late even once will drop your credit score and if you make a habit of it, you will have bad credit. Paying on time makes up 35% of your credit score. Since you are going to be making payments anyway, it is very important

Setting a budget, determining goals for a financial plan and other points are identical with what we have discussed. During our class period, we talked more about how to set up budget and financial plan on our own using tools and assistance that are available online, some are even free of charge. But in the article, the author is more emphasizing to consult professional financial advisors for personal financial planning and budgeting. Both ways are helpful and not stand against each other. I believe it is more effective and efficient to using those resources available online for practice, and, meanwhile, turn to financial advisor for assistance. We can buy the knowledge from the experts and turn it into our own for future financial

Although the reliance on student loans continues to increase for college students across the nation, the vast majority of American teenagers are not required to attend and complete a Financial Literacy course before graduating high school. According to Jillian Berman, only five states scored an A on the 2015 Report Card on State Efforts to Improve Financial Literacy in High Schools, and those same five states are the only states in the country that require students to take a dedicated semester of personal finance courses before graduating (Marketwatch.com). There is an obvious problem with the state efforts to properly educate finances when 14 out of 50 states rank in at a failing grade. Money is an essential asset to life on Earth, and proper education on financial management is vital for the basic requirements to sustain life. Education on how to manage money in order to afford food, shelter, clothing should be the main priority of the Financial Literacy courses. More in-depth are topics

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