Category Archives: Ch. 2, Measuring Financial Health and Making a Plan

Class Discussion: How does your holiday spending compare to the average?

Teaching tip:  This is one of those class discussions where there isn’t a right or wrong answer, just opinions.  One way to start it out is to have everyone answer a number of questions dealing with what they think the … Continue reading

Posted in Ch. 2, Measuring Financial Health and Making a Plan | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Class Discussion and Video: How to Save $10,000 in a Year

Teaching Tip:  One good way to present this material is to show the Wall Street Journal video “Saving $10,000” in class (which is about 3 minutes long) and then open up a class discussion, follow that with a written assignment … Continue reading

Posted in Ch. 2, Measuring Financial Health and Making a Plan | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Class Discussion: The 1% and the Income Gap

Lately, if you’ve been watching the news coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement or listening to the political debate, there has been quite a bit of talk about the income gap between those in the top 1%  and the … Continue reading

Posted in Ch. 1, Financial Planning Process, Ch. 2, Measuring Financial Health and Making a Plan, Personal Finance In The News | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Class Discussion: How the Downturn in the Economy Has Changed American Lives

Everyone has felt the impact of the recent downturn in the economy.  If you haven’t lost your job, you probably know someone who has or someone who is afraid they will.  In addition, your investment or your parents’ investments along … Continue reading

Posted in Ch. 1, Financial Planning Process, Ch. 2, Measuring Financial Health and Making a Plan, Ch.18, Financial Life Events | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Student Exercise: A Look at Apparel Spending

Do you ever wish you could quickly and easily see all of your financial information? As we discussed in Chapter 2, Mint.com does a great job of putting all of your balances and transactions together in one place providing you … Continue reading

Posted in Ch. 2, Measuring Financial Health and Making a Plan, Personal Finance In The News | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

An Unplanned Expense of $1,000 Would Be Tough for Most Americans to Handle

What would happen to you if you needed to come up with $1,000 for an emergency?  If you’re like most Americans, you’d be in trouble.  This is a question that CNN.Money looks at in an August 10th article titled “Most … Continue reading

Posted in Ch. 2, Measuring Financial Health and Making a Plan, Ch. 5, Cash Management | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Jean Chatzky on Surviving the Downturn

Jean Chatzky, one of the best personal finance writers around, just wrote her first column for Newsweek.  This column is titled “How to Protect your Portfolio from Politics” and also appears with a slightly different title, “Jean Chatzky: Surviving the … Continue reading

Posted in Ch. 2, Measuring Financial Health and Making a Plan, Ch. 5, Cash Management, Ch.11, Investment Basics, Personal Finance In The News | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment