Personal Finance (FIN1100)
Spring Term 2007
Instructor: Mr. Bill Kiernan
Office:
Office Hours: Monday, Wednesday, Tuesday, Thursday 1pm – 3:30pm
Or by appointment
Telephone: (904) 808-7485
Email: williamkiernan@sjrcc.edu
Prerequisites: None
Additional Helpful Skills: willingness to learn, open mind
Course Description:
This course includes a study of budgeting, borrowing, financial institutions, family finance, home ownership, insurance, estate planning, and the buying and selling of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. In addition, the correlation between education and income will be discussed.
Materials Needed:
Textbook: Personal Finance, Eighth Edition, McGraw Hill Irwin.
ISBN: 0-07-310671-2, Textbook CD: Personal Financial 8e, McGraw Hill Irwin.
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Course Objectives
1. Construct a personal financial plan, including a budget, income statement, and balance sheet. Include retirement and estate planning as part of the overall financial plan.
2. Include financial expectations in career planning activities
3. Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of various financing options for major purchases and choose the most appropriate option.
4. Understand and use common legal, industry, and corporate protections available to consumers for purchase refunds, exchanges, complaints, and defect remedies.
5. Understand the factors that contribute to consumer credit approval and lending rates, including credit scores and other credit worthiness measures.
6. Differentiate between common investment securities such as stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, including their risk profiles and trading methods.
7. Determine his or her risk profile and construct and manage an investment portfolio that matches it.
8. Recognize the need for various types of personal insurance, including home, automobile, rental, health, life, and disability. Understand the advantages and disadvantages of policy options for each type.
9. Articulate the basic process for calculating federal income taxes and identify typical deductions and exemptions that he or she may qualify for. Select the correct federal income tax form depending on his or her personal situation. Prepare simple federal income tax forms.
10. Identify common non-securities investments such as Real Estate and Commodities. Determine the advantages, disadvantages, and risk profile of these investments, and their typical trading methods.
11. Understand common financial services available to the consumer, how to utilize these services, and where to obtain them.
Identify common options for housing and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each. Understand and navigate the mortgage application and approval process.
Attendance/Absence:
Attendance is critical and required for successful completion of this course. This course will require significant class preparation and the text will be covered at a fairly rapid rate.
It is your responsibility to notify your Instructor (via telephone, email, on in person) should you be unable to attend class for any reason. It is the student’s responsibility to let the instructor know in advance should an absence be necessary. It is the student’s responsibility to pro-actively seek missing knowledge, scheduling changes. It is strongly suggested that you regularly log on to your SJRCC Student email as the Instructor will provide important communication through this vehicle. If the student wishes to drop the course for whatever reason, the student must hand in proper forms into Administration on or before March 16, 2007.
Absence Warning
As stated in the student handbook you may receive an instructor warning when you have
missed the equivalent of three 50-minute class periods
regardless of the reason and may
be withdrawn from the course by the instructor after the fourth 50-minute absence. It is
the student’s responsibility to withdraw from class. Do not assume that the instructor will
withdraw you. Do not stop coming to class without withdrawing officially – protect your
GPA. Withdrawal forms are available from the Records Office on the Palatka Campus
and from the Administration area of other campuses.
Grades and Grading:
Your grade for this course will be a combination of homework assignments, exams, and class participation. All work must be submitted on the date and time that it is due. Assignments are due at the beginning of the class in writing to the Instructor. Each day late will result in the reduction a one grade letter. After four time periods the assignment will receive a grade of “F”.
Source of Grades (see
attached page for details):
A) Four Exams (two thirds of overall grade, each equal weight)
B) Assignments (one third of overall grade)
“Drop Grades” – two lowest grades can be dropped. These can be either Exam 1,2,3 or Homework Assignments. The last Exam cannot be dropped.
A=90-100, B=80-89, C=70-79, D=60-69, F=0_59
Make up Policy – There are no “make ups”. Once an Exam has been given to the class, the student who has missed an Exam must use one of the two “drop grades” provided by the Instructor.
No Incompletes will
be given in this course.
Academic Integrity:
Students in this
class must know, observe, and not compromise the principles of academic
integrity. It is not permissible to
cheat, to fabricate, or falsify information, to submit the same academic work
in more than one course without prior permission, to plagiarize, to receive unfair
advantage, or to otherwise abuse accepted practices for handling and
documenting information. The grade for
this course includes the judgement that the student’s
work is free from academic dishonesty of any type. Violations or infractions will be reported to
the Vice President for Student Affairs and may lead to failure of the course
and other sanctions imposed by the College.
Source of Grades
Personal Finance (FIN1100) – Spring 2007
(Tentative Schedule)
Note that the schedule is tentative. Changes to schedules will be made by the instructor based upon the needs of the class and will be announced in class and sent via email.
* Semester begins January
2, 2007
A) Four Exams – (two thirds of overall grade) an exam
at the end of each Part below, equal weight: DUE DATE
- Exam
1 Chapters 1-4 Planning Your
Personal Finances 1/24
- Exam 2 Chapters 13-17 Investments
2/21
- Exam
3 Chapters 5-7 Managing Your
Personal Finances 3/28
- Exam 4 Chapters 8-12 Purchasing Decisions, Insurance 4/20
B) Projects / Assignments (one third of overall grade)
* Chapter 1 / PFP Sheets 1-5 1/8
* Chapter 2 / PFP Sheets 6-11 1/10
* Chapter 3 / PFP Sheets 14-18 1/17
* Chapter 4 / PFP Sheets 20-22 1/22
* Chapter 13 / Concept Check, p. 435, Answer all six 1/29
* Chapter 14, 15, 16 / PFP Sheets 58-61 2/5
Stock Market / Portfolio Exercise (Double Homework Grade Value) 2/19
* Chapter 5 / Financial Planning Case, p. 164-165, Ques 1-4 2/28
* Chapter 6 / Financial Planning Problems, p. 199, Ques 1,2,3,6 3/7
* Chapter 7 / PFP Sheets 30,31 3/14
* Chapter 8 / PFP Sheets 32-34, 36-38 4/2
* Chapter 9 / Financial Planning Problems, p.309, Ques 1-3 4/9
And Financial Planning Case, p. 310, Ques 1-3
* Chapter 10 / Financial Planning Case, p. 340, Ques 1-4 4/13
* Chapter 11, 12 / PFP Sheets 51-54 4/16
* April 24, 2007 -
Last Day of Classes
In addition to your Instructor, the Book Publisher (McGraw Hill) provides you with an amazing array of additional study materials. Please take advantage of this website.
