High Personal Finance and Money Management

Module 1– Attitudes, Education, and Income

• Cognitive biases affecting financial decisions
• Factors affecting career choices
• Costs and benefits of education/training
• Types of income
• Entrepreneurship
• “Gig“ employment
• Social Security
• Purposes of taxes at the federal, state, and local levels
• Income tax
• Budgeting

 

Module 2 – Spending and Saving

• Factors affecting consumer decisions
• Charitable and non-profit organizations
• Contesting an incorrect billing statement
• Conditions of contracts
• Types of financial accounts
• Managing financial accounts
• Government regulatory agencies
• Inflation
• Nominal and real interest rates
• Calculating simple and compound interest

 

Module 3 – Credit and Loans

• Costs and benefits of using credit
• Secured and unsecured loans
• Completing a loan application
• Home mortgages
• Financing options for post-secondary education
• Credit scores and reports
• Consequences of poor credit
• Assistance for repaying debt
• Declaring bankruptcy

 

Module 4 – Investing, Insuring, and Planning

• Types and purposes of investments
• Risks of different types of investments
• Tax implications of investments
• Risk v. return
• Diversification
• Insurance and premiums
• Identity theft
• Inheritance
• Financial planning
• Identity theft
• Receiving an inheritance
• Financial planning

Calculator recommended

Besides engaging students in a challenging curriculum, the course guides students to reflect on their learning and evaluate their progress through a variety of assessments. Assessments can be in the form of practice lessons, multiple-choice questions, writing assignments, projects, research papers, oral assessments, and discussions. This course will use the state-approved grading scale. Each course contains a mandatory final exam or culminating project that will be weighted at 20% of the student’s overall grade.***

 

***Proctored exams can be requested by FLVS at any time and for any reason in an effort to ensure academic integrity. When taking the exam to assess a student’s integrity, the exam must be passed with at least a 59.5% to earn credit for the course.

To achieve success, students are expected to submit work in each course weekly. Students can learn at their own pace; however, “any pace” still means that students must make progress in the course every week. To measure learning, students complete self-checks, practice lessons, multiple choice questions, projects, discussion-based assessments, and discussions. Students are expected to maintain regular contact with teachers; the minimum requirement is monthly. When teachers, students, and parents work together, students are successful.