This is worth 25% of your TOTAL GRADE. It must be between 5 to 10 pages long. 5 pages of single spaced written material, or 10 pages of double spaced written material. All graphs, charts, budgets, etc… are NOT counted as part of the length of the WRITTEN material and should be placed in the Appendix at the very end of the paper. Explaining in detail what your plan is. The more detail and the more specific you are…the better. You will need to use all the resources that you’ve learned about Personal Finance…from projects, lectures, guest speakers, other students, etc.
You can use your Vision Board/ bucket list (if it’s changed, explain what changed for you) as a template for your goal setting. You should have short term, intermediate, and long term goal and incorporate them into your financial planning.
Tell me how you plan on getting from your current situation in order to achieve your short term goals, then what you plan to do after you achieve it. Afterwards go on and tell me about your career plans.
What are your intermediate goals, how do you plan on achieving it, what obstacles are there? What are your long term goals, how are you planning on achieving it, what obstacles are there? Any alternative plans?
Are you planning to get married? Have children? How many children? Being a stay-home parent? Buy a house somewhere? A few horses instead? Retire in Florida because of taxes?
Provide a detailed explanation on your past, or current cash flow, what your future cash flow will hopefully be like. What areas do you think need improvements (e.g. increase savings, stop discretionary spending, use coupons and wait for sales more, get a second job, get better at delayed gratification, move in with my parents, etc…) and what techniques have your learned in order to accomplish that?
Use what you’ve learned in class,(and out of class…if necessary) in order to create your financial plan. Include a budget, savings plan, banking and investing, credit cards, identity theft awareness, taxes, loans, insurance (life, auto, home, disability, long term care), retirement, estate planning, things that you learned from guest speakers, classmate presentations…etc…
What are your backup plans? ( Plan alternative routes to accomplishing your goals or dealing with challenging circumstances).
Your personal analysis and conclusion. Example on how to start (always start with your history and then current situation): I am currently 28 years old and a senior at Rutgers… My short term goal is to graduate with my bachelors. I would like to graduate in two years and start working in X company. Currently I have Y amount of student loans and live off-campus. I make Z amount, but I end up spending it all and am unable to save. Sometimes I end up running out of money and putting things I need (and some things that I don’t need) onto my credit card that has an interest rate of 16%. I want to graduate debt free, but it will be hard. I’ll probably have to get a second job and it might make sense for me to move in with my parents so I can save. Right now I can probably work an extra 10 hours a week, on the weekends mostly. If I make minimum wage, then I could save at least 25 dollars a week or 100 dollars a month, which is 1200 dollars a year. I think that is manageable and I could also try put it in to an Roth IRA. My savings account is horrible! It give me only 0.50% in interest right now, plus I get a fee for overdraft. I should change banks. I remember doing the banking project for class and there is a bank near me that offers better terms and rates…etc, etc…
