Audience & Goals

Audience

The audience for Personal Finance includes high school students in grades 9 - 12, home school and private school students, credit recovery, suspended/expelled students, and medically needy students. There are no prerequisite courses required for taking Personal Finance.

Goals

Understand and use a rational decision-making process as it applies to the roles of citizens, workers, and consumers.

Manage limited financial resources and recognize that more of the wants and needs of members of a society can be met if wise consumer decisions are made.

Describe the rights and responsibilities of citizens in the US economy, including their role in making decisions through the political processes that affect allocation of limited personal and public resources to meet individual and societal needs and wants.

Relate personal interest, wants, and abilities to career choices and assess how conditions in the labor market may affect career choices.

Objectives

The student will:

• Analyze the process for making personal financial decisions.
• Develop personal financial goals.
• Assess personal and economic factors that influence personal financial planning.
• Identify strategies for achieving personal financial goals for different life situations.
• Describe the importance of taxes for personal financial planning.
• Calculate taxable income and the amount owed for federal income tax.
• Prepare a federal income tax return.
• Identify tax assistance sources.
• Select appropriate tax strategies for different financial and personal situations.
• Analyze factors that affect selection and use of financial services.
• Compare the types of financial institutions.
• Compare the costs and benefits of various savings plans.
• Identify the factors used to evaluate different savings plans.
• Compare the costs and benefits of different types of checking accounts.
• Define consumer credit and analyze its advantages and disadvantages.
• Differentiate among various types of credit.
• Assess credit capacity and build credit rating.
• Describe the information creditors look for when a person applies for credit.
• Identify the steps to take to avoid and correct credit mistakes.
• Describe the laws that protect a consumer who has a complaint about consumer credit.
• Analyze the major sources of consumer credit.
• Determine the cost of credit by calculating interest using various interest formulas.
• Develop a plan to manage debts.
• Evaluate various private and government sources that assist consumers with debt problems.
• Assess the choices in declaring personal bankruptcy.
• Assess the financial implications of consumer purchasing decisions.
• Evaluate the alternatives in consumer purchasing decisions.
• Identify steps to take to resolve consumer problems.
• Evaluate the legal alternatives available to consumers.