State College Area School District

Personal Finance

COURSE SYLLABUS

• Personal Finance will cover the following units:  

  
  Unit 1    Financial Awareness & Philosophy - Laying the Blocks    
          Needs vs Wants
          Personal and Financial goal-setting
          Financial Freedom
  
  Unit 2    Budgeting - Creating a Financial Blueprint    
          Paychecks - Pay, Taxes, Deductions, Net Pay
          Gross Income, Net Income, Discretionary Income
          % of expenses - recommended ratios
          Building a Budget - fixed and variable expense
          Budgeting mistakes
          Dave Ramsey video - 3 days
          Need a guest speaker here
          Financail APPS
          Introduce Quicken
  
  HR BLOCK CHALLENGE
  
  Unit 3    Banking - Finding a Home for Your Money    
          PNC Virtual Wallet:  On-line banking simulation. Guest speaker.
          Writing checks
          Reconciling checking account
          Checking vs. Savings
          ATM's, Debit vs. Credit
          Banks vs Credit Union
          Pine Gulch
          Feed the Pig
          Taxes -W-2, W-4, 1040EZ   
          Financail APPS
  
  Unit 4    Let's Go Shopping - Spending Wisely    
          On-line purchasing (http vs https), (tax vs shipping)
          Buying a Car
          Researching buying a car
          Kelly blue book
          How to negotiate
          Identity protection
          How to research buying a product - consumer reports
          Impulse buying 
          Financail APPS
  
  Unit 5    Credit - Good Debt/Bad Debt - Using Your Credit Wisely    
          Store cards vs credit
          Credit Protection - laws
          FICO scores
          Oprah / Ramsey videos
          Interest Rates, minimum balances
          Cash vs Credit
          Good debt vs bad debt
          Buying on credit-90 days same as cash
  
  Unit 6    Investing - Making your Money Grow, Wealth Building    
          Markets - NYSE, Nasdaq, etc
          Indexes
          How to buy a stock
          Selection of stocks
          Stocks, mutual funds, bonds, CDs
          Other investments - commodities, real estate, etc.
          Stock market game
          Planning for retirement - 401(k), 403(b), etc
          Compound interest
          Financail APPS
  
  
  Unit 7    Insurance - Protecting What You've Built    
          Car insurance
          Renters insurance / home insurance
          Personal property insurance
  
  Unit 8 Planning a Vacation
          Booking Online
          Scams
          Various Resources