Course Summary Recap

Thank you for taking West Have Adult Ed Personal Finance course with me.

The last session's class on Insurance and Taxes has a Powerpoint that can be accessed by clicking on this link.

In addition, you may find a course summary Powerpoint useful as well; here is a link to access it.

It's been a pleasure.

Happy holidays.

R.Wiegand

Take-home Final due December 16, 2015

Here is a link to access a copy of the take-home final.

It is due in class next week, December 16, 2015, or via email by sending it to rwiegs@gmail.com.   If you choose the latter approach for submission, you must notify me first.

Best of luck and Happy Holidays!

Credit Management

Today's class is about credit management.  

We'll explore the following key terms and concepts:

• Credit

•Creditor

•Closed-end credit, installment debt

•Open-end credit, revolving credit

•Line of Credit

•Available credit

•FICO score

•Credit utilization ratio

•Grace period

•Finance charge

•APR 

•Debt/Income ratio

We'll review a sample credit card statement and talk about strategies that can save you thousands of dollars in interest payments.

We will also discuss how to keep your credit cards secure.

We will review basic concepts of contract law and what can happen in the case of bankruptcy.

Finally, we will talk about where to go to get debt counseling and whether debt consolidation programs are appropriate.

To access a Powerpoint of this lesson, please click on the following link.

West Haven Basic Math Computer Lab Exercise

Today we will use Excel to do some data analysis from two tables.

The first table is related to nutritional information about meats.

The second exercise has to do with interpreting budgeting expenses for a hypothetical individual named Thomas Woods.

To access the Excel spreadsheet, please click on this link.

When you are done with both parts of the exercise, please save your spreadsheet as Firstname_Lastname.xls and send it as an attachment to rwiegs@gmail.com

SMART Goals are well, smart!

In chapter 1 of the Personal Finance textbook we find the definition of a SMART goal.  The best goals are S-M-A-R-T in the sense that 

The more specific, measurable, action-oriented, realistic and time-sensitive your goals are, the more likely they will be realized during your lifetime.  For further explanation, please review the author's discussion about SMART goal setting in her text by clicking on this link.

Here is a flow chart for the process of setting a SMART goal:

For an example of how to apply a SMART plan to a real life example, please click on this link to access a spreadsheet that helps you calculate the cost of purchasing a big ticket item (such as a car).  

Net Worth and Net Income - 2 related but different guages of financial health

February 18, 2015

Hi Students,

Today our objective is to learn some of the differences between Net Worth and Net Income.  



One is more of a flow concept that should be monitored at least monthly, while the other is more of a big picture, frozen snapshot concept that should be reviewed at least once per year.   



BOTH are excellent ways to gauge your personal financial health.

To access today's presentation, please click on this link.

Personal Investing Reward to Risk Exercise

We continue our review of personal investing concepts.  Today, we will explore the reward-risk trade-off for various securities that can comprise an investment portfolio.

The trick is to find an optimal balance between risky investments and conservative investments to reach our long-term retirement goals.  You shouldn't have to stick out your neck too far to get 6-9% annual returns, as we shall see.  


To access the Excel spreadsheet with the scatter plot please click on this link.

To access the Word document with the scatter plot questions (12 in all) please click on this link. 

You can also access the Powerpoint presentation on investing by clicking on this link.

Mid-term Questions Study Guide

The WHAE Personal Finance Mid-term is comprised of 2 parts: 

Part 1 - 10 short-answer questions worth 7 points each

Part 2 - 1 Take-home essay question analyzing two hypothetical individuals' net income cash flows.   Parts 2A and 2B are worth 15 points each.  So the take-home part is worth 30 points out of 100.

Part 1 Short-answer questions deal with the following terms and topics (you should know the definitions of them all):

• the difference between wants and needs
• what is a budget?
• what are SMART goals
• what is the difference between  a short-term goal  and a long-term goal?
• what is the difference between net worth and net income?
• what is earned income?
•  what is inflation?
• what has been the average rate of inflation in America since 1926?
• be able to provide examples of good vs bad uses of credit (i.e. debt)
• what is the difference between fixed vs variable expenses?
• What is an emergency fund or rainy day fund? 

Understanding your pay-stub, W-4 and W-2 forms

In this lesson, our goal is to review W-4 and W-2 forms as well as the components of a typical pay-stub from an employer.

To access an instructional video, please click on this link.