Monday, January 23, 2017

Welcome to WHAE Personal Finance Class

Hi and welcome to West Haven Adult Ed. Consumer Math class with Richard Wiegand!




For a copy of the syllabus and course expectations, please click on this link.

The class will meet Mondays from 6:30 - 8:00 PM from September 11th through December 4th - except for holidays, snow-days or cancellations.  Please check the West Haven Adult Ed. web site for cancellations or postponements.


Today's lesson is about how to maintain a checking account registry using Excel. We will also discuss the cost of CT Sales tax on the purchase of goods and services in the state of CT.  To access the Len Lombardo Checking Account Registry, please click on this link.   To access the CT Sales Tax exercise, please click on this link.



===============================================


The text for the course is entitled Personal Finance by Margaret Magnarelli.  To access the pdf, please click on this link.


Unlock Your Potential

Success is goals, and all else is commentary. All successful people are goal oriented.  They know what they want and they are focused single-mindedly on achieving it, every single day.  

Your ability to set goals is the master skill of success...Without goals, you simply drift and flow on the currents of life.  With goals, you fly like an arrow, straight and true to your target.  

Clear goals increase your confidence, develop your competence, and boost your levels of motivation.  As Tom Hopkins once said, "Goals are the fuel in the furnace of success."

Join the Top 3 Percent

Mark McCormack in his book What They Don't Teach you at Harvard Business School tells of a Harvard study conducted between 1979 and 1989.  In 1979, the graduates of the MBA program at Harvard were asked, "Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?"  It turned out that only 3% of the graduates had written goals and plans.  13% had goals, but they were not in writing.  Fully 84% had no specific goals at all, aside from getting out of school and enjoying the summer.

Ten years later, in 1989, the researchers interviewed the members of that class again.  They found that the 13% who had goals that were not in writing were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84% of students who had no goals at all.  But most surprisingly, they found that the 3% of graduates who had clear, written goals when they left Harvard were earning, on average, 10 times as much as the other 97% of graduates all together.  The only difference between the groups was the clarity of the goals they had for themselves when they graduated.

What an eye opener!  


This excerpt was taken from Brian Tracy's book entitled, Goals! How to Get Everything You Want Faster than You Thought Possible.



Monday, September 26, 2016

Carmax.com, Trulia.com, Rent.com and Bankrate.com computer lab exercise


In this computer lab, we will consider the cost of financing a used car, and the cost of renting an apartment or buying a home in 4 locations across the country.

Here is the link for the Carmax.com exercise.








Here is the link for the Buying a Home Mortgage term comparison exercise.







Monday, April 4, 2016

Today's Personal Finance class has been canceled due to inclement weather




I just got word that West Haven HS is closed due to inclement weather.  There is therefore no personal finance class tonight.

Classes will resume next Monday and Wednesday April 11th and 13th (same time and locations).

Thank you for understanding.

R. Wiegand

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

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

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

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!

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

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.