You will be completing a series of worksheets throughout the quarter to culminate in you calculating your personal financial plan.

You will be completing a series of worksheets throughout the quarter to culminate in you calculating your personal financial plan. In addition to the worksheets and their calculations, you will also be writing a 750-word minimum synopsis of the plan’s processes.

Goal Worksheet

Setting Personal Fin Goals (will turn in)

· Set one short-term goal of your choice

· Set one intermediate goal of your choice

· Long-term = retirement

TVM Calculations (will not check)

Career Area Research Sheet (will turn in)

· Fill out in entirety

Budgeting Worksheet

Personal Balance Sheet (will check for completion)

Creating a Personal Cash Flow Statement (will check for completion)

Personal Budget (will check for completion)

· Must create budget (for one month) and keep track of actual amounts for that month

Renting vs Buying Housing

Renting vs Buying– you will either need to use your actuals for rental costs, or if you are living at home with your family and not paying rent, look into typical rent amounts in our area (perhaps you can ask a friend??). For rental insurance use your actual amount, and if you do not have it, use $25 per month.

For Buying Costs – use information from Chapter 7 to pick the type of mortgage you would most like to use and get the current interest rates from bankrate.com. For the “mortgage amount” in the worksheet, pull from the information you determine from going through the “Housing Affordability” worksheet tab (see below).

For property taxes and homeowners insurance costs – use your actuals if you pay these or the amounts listed in the example on page 219

For homeowners insurance – use $700

Use the marginal tax rate that you estimate to be in after you graduate and are starting your career.

Housing Affordability

Use the monthly gross income that you expect to earn in the first few years after graduation from college (ie the “starting” salary that you determined from Week 1’s “Career Area Research Sheet”)

Estimate your own “other monthly debt payments” and use the prepopulated “$300” for property taxes and homeowners insurance

p.229 and 230 are especially helpful with this worksheet

Retirement Worksheet

· Line 24 -If you do not have a social security number or the “estimator” does not give you an estimate, use the $18,000 that is prepopulated.

· Line 25 – come up with a figure that you think reasonable (based on your motivation to save, contribution limits, and your expected salary). Explain how you came up with that figure in the narrative section

· Line 26 – come up with a figure that you think reasonable (based on your motivation to save, and your expected salary). Explain how you came up with that figure in the narrative section

Narrative Section (at least 750 words, typed, double-spaced)

Title – “My Financial Plan”

Financial and Career Goal Worksheets

Weave your career and financial goals throughout your plan explanation.

Budgeting Worksheet – Please comment on what you learned. What was your reaction to the Personal Balance Sheet and the Cash Flow Statement? How did the budgeting process go for you? What did you do well and what do you think you could have done better? What did you learn about yourself as a money manager? Feel free to include any other thoughts you may have had about the process.

Housing Worksheets-Like saving for retirement, proactive housing planning is essential to your financial plan. Please pull the biggest “take aways” for you from completing this worksheets and address in your narrative.

Retirement Worksheet-Please explain your process. For lines 24-26 please explain how you came up with your reasonable figure (connect to your career and financial goals). Also, bring in the behavioral finance piece and apply that to your retirement plan. Think about how different biases and blind spots could get in the way of you meeting your retirement goals (using the information we discussed in lecture). Explain these biases and blind spots. What safeguards can you put in place that will help you stay on track?