1) Financial Goals

a) Create a short; middle; long range goal.

b) Make the short term goal SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound) with an action statement as to how you’ll achieve it. (This doesn’t need to be long or complicated, for example: At the end of three months I will have $1200 for a new couch by saving $100 per week.)

2) Career section including:

a) Resume

b) Thank you letter

c) Cover letter

Go to the following sites to check your aptitude (it doesn’t take long) and then go to the BLS site to get answers to questions for your writeup. Aptitude test:

https://www.careeronestop.org/Toolkit/Skills/skills-matcher.aspx

https://www.123test.com/career-test/

Occupation finder from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics gives you information on careers:

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/occupation-finder.htm

d) One page write-up; identify three careers that you may be interested in, consider:

i) What is the education requirement,

ii) growth rate (job outlook),

iii) pay,

iv) work environment,

v) related jobs,

vi) how does this align with your aptitude/interest

3) Credit

a) Find out what’s on your credit report (you may be surprised!). I recommend annualcreditreport.com but Credit Karma, Wallet Hub, or others are fine.

b) Reflection statement: best and worst credit decision, what are you going to do to improve your score (I do NOT need/want to know your score!!), how do you use your credit differently now? (Minimum half page writeup)

4) Housing choice

a) Find four houses, include the MLS listings (screen shot of the first page); two of the residences need to be within 40 miles of Sacramento, and at least one out of state. Use $350,000 as a maximum price as most will be looking for a starter home, (no, this is NOT your “dream home” it’s a starter home).

b) Which would you choose and why would you choose it over the others? What would it take to get in (assuming FHA financing with 3.5% down) and what would be the anticipated monthly expenses (mortgage, taxes, insurance, HOA/if any) realtor.com is a very useful site for this.

5) Budget

a) List of fixed expenses and how often they’re due, as well as variable expenses and approximations.

i) Which monthly method would you use? 50/30/20; Zero Sum Budget; Backwards Budget; etc. Create your budget.

b) OR a spending diary

Two week spending diary if you aren’t living on your own, or if you prefer (but this needs to be DETAILED), include a half page write-up of your impressions of your spending patterns upon reflection.

6) Investments (Minimum half page write-up)

a) Risk tolerance (include a screenshot of the results of an online assessment I’ve included two below, or find a different one)

i) http://pfp.missouri.edu/research_IRTA.html

ii) https://personal.vanguard.com/us/FundsInvQuestionnaire

Pick a minimum of three specific mutual funds (include a one page print up of each fund from Morningstar, or another source) and how you would invest a hypothetical $10,000 into those three accounts (i.e. $4000/4000/2000 or $6000/2000/2000). A good tool for finding the mutual funds to fit your criteria is through Morningstar.com although there are other “Fund Screener” tools out there as well. The “Basic Fund Screener” is found on the right side of the Morningstar home page. https://www.morningstar.com

7) Auto insurance (Minimum half page write-up)

a) Screen shots of quotes from three providers (None from Progressive, not only will it not count as one of the three, I’ll just give you a zero for this portion….Progressive is an evil company!!!) Make sure the LEVELS of coverage you’re getting quotes for is clearly visible. If you don’t have car insurance, compare insurance for someone else (parents, roommate, etc.)

b) In your write up answer these questions:

What are your current levels of coverage?

How much coverage should you carry?

Why should/do you carry those levels?

8) Home or renters insurance (brief write-up, less than half page)

a) Screen shots of quotes from three providers

b) Which features are important to you in a policy?

9) Health insurance (Minimum half page write-up)

a) Screen shots of quotes from three providers

b) Which features are important to you in a policy?

c) What is the annual cost to use the coverage (total of premiums, plus deductible or co-pay)?

10) Post assessment (One page)

a) What did you learn about yourself and your finances?

b) What have you done different (if anything) since starting this class? (changes in saving/spending, credit, insurance, financial goals)

c) How do you feel about the chances of purchasing a home? (more/less likely; time frame; locality)

d) Do you feel that retirement is something that you’ll be able to financially prepare for? (Why/Why not)

e) What are your next TWO changes you’ll make in your finances?