Each student will develop a full financial plan for their short-term and long-term goals. This plan will cover all the topics covered in the course along with any specific personal goals the student has for their life. The summary comments should be a detailed analysis of the choices you made and why you made them. These are a major part of each section. See detailed description below. Assignments will be submitted in Canvas in common recognizable format (MS Word or Adobe PDF) and will be checked for plagiarism using the external Unicheck tool. This budget and report is due by date/time specified in the assignment in Canvas.

Section I You

• Personal goals including professional, social, and financial goals
• Summary comments on the changes you made and why

Section II Your Budget

• Your Personal budget (Excel) based on the four months of class. Planned income vs. actual income; Planned expenditures vs. actual expenditures; Net Surplus vs. deficit; New Planned budget based on average salary in the profession you aspire achieving to support financial plan objectives (Car, Home, Retirement).
• Summary comments on the changes you made and why

Section III Your Car

Part A - Research Car Options

• Research and compare 3 different cars you might want to purchase
• Purchase price
• Monthly payments
• Monthly gas costs
• What it would do to your insurance costs
• Estimated resale value after 5 years (depreciation)
• Estimated annual maintenance costs
• Which car would you choose and why? (Show an understanding of the financial consequences of the choice)

Part B - Research Financing Options

• Loan Options
• For the car you chose, research 2 different financing options for the car from two different sources (banks, credit unions, or a dealer).
• What is the interest rate and term for each
• What is the monthly payment
• What is the effective total cost of owning the car over 3 years
• Lease Option
• Identify what a 3-year lease would cost you in monthly payments
• Identify the down payment and any other costs they charge
• Cash Option
• State when you want to buy the car and how many years away it is.
• Identify a mutual fund that could be used to invest for buying the car. Explain why this fund is appropriate and note its expected rate of return.
• Using the calculator in the worksheet, identify how much you will need to save each month to be able to buy the car outright.

Section IV Your Home

Part A - Identify The Home

• Using the housing research you did for homework (or identifying a new city) identify a property that you would like to buy at some point in the future.
• Analyze the purchase of a home from an investment standpoint including
• Growth potential of the asset
• Opportunity cost of paying a mortgage vs. being able to invest in other assets
• Rental income potential of the asset
• Maintenance and repair costs for the asset

Part B - Plan the Purchase

• How long do you have to save: Analyze when do you think would be right for you to buy a home (age) based on
• Lifestyle needs
• Financial abilities
• Job stability/opportunities
• How will you afford the down-payment needed to buy the house
• How much of a down-payment would you need and by when?
• What will you do to save the money needed for the down-payment?
• Where will you invest the funds until you are ready to buy?
  • If you are using a lifecycle fund or target date fund, identify the fund and its historical returns.
• What investment classes will you use? Why did you choose those investments
• What is the expected return of your investment strategy?
• Using the calculator in the worksheet, identify how much you will need to save each month to meet your down payment goal.
• How much of other peoples money would you be able to use with this strategy?

Section V Your Retirement

Part A - Your Risk Tolerance

• Determine your risk tolerance for your retirement investing.
• Explain your tolerance for risk and what factors you used to come to that conclusion.

Part B - Your Asset Allocation

• Develop an asset allocation model that is appropriate to that level of risk.
• What asset classes do you want to invest in?
• What % of your portfolio does each make up?
• Analyze why that asset allocation make sense based on your risk?

Part C - Plan Your Retirement

• Figure out how much you need to save for retirement
• When do you want to retire (how many years away is it)
• How many years will you be in retirement
• How much income per year do you want in retirement
• What will be your needed retirement account balance (calculated both ways)
• Identify at least 4 mutual funds that you can use to create your asset allocation
• Analyze 4 different mutual funds (Do the following four times, once for each fund)
• Name of fund and ticker symbol
• What is the funds investment strategy?
• How has each performed over the past 10 years?
• What asset classes does the fund invest in?
• What individual companies that you like does the fund invest in and why do you like that?
• Analyze the funds management team
• What reviews do you see of each fund/management team
• How does this fund fit into your investment philosophy and why
• Calculate your investment portfolios percentage rate of return based upon each funds performance and how much of your portfolio is invested in them
• Calculate (using the calculator) how much you need to save per year to reach your retirement goal?

Section VI Your Class

Summary comments on how this class has impacted you. Focus more on what changes you are or will SOON be making in your relationship with money. How are you doing with meeting your goals? What habits have you changed? Are there any questions or information we did not cover that you would have liked to?