Abstract

In an introductory personal financial planning course students are introduced to personal budget planning concepts.  Students are assigned the task of creating their personal financial budget based on the time period of when they graduate from college, begin their career, and move out of their parents’ home.  The purpose of this assignment is to prepare the student to plan for saving and managing expenses that were most likely previously paid for by the students’ parents.   Additionally, students learn about income taxation, different investment accounts available to individuals to help them save money to achieve their financial goals as well as various insurance products available to help manage potentially major financial losses.  All of these have a monetary cost that must be accounted for in the budget.  In the second week of the semester students are required to research apartment rent costs and starting salaries for their career major in the geographic area they plan to live after graduation.  This information is the basis of their forecasted starting salary and housing costs that the student will use to begin to design their budget.  Throughout the semester students learns about 401ks and IRAs along with insurance products covering health, auto, homeowners, life, disability and long term care.   These are all additional line items on the student’s budget.  The benefit of this assignment is that the day the student graduates they already have a realistic spending/saving plan in place.