Monthly Archives: December 2022

Personal Finance Simulations for Budgeting and Investing

Posted on December 17, 2022 by Melissa Hart

Question:  What is a Personal Finance simulation? 

Answer:  A Personal Finance simulation allows students to fine-tune their decisions when they encounter real-life scenarios while taking a Personal Finance course. 

The authors of Personal Finance, 14e and Focus on Personal Finance, 7e have partnered with StockTrak.com to provide students with an interactive learning experience before they leave the classroom.   

The simulation that accompanies the Kapoor Personal Finance texts includes two components–a personal budgeting simulation and an investing simulation.

The Budgeting Simulation

  • Students assume the role of a full-time employee or part-time employee living on their own.
  • Over a virtual 12-month period, students review their estimated income and expenses, create monthly budgets and savings goals, and try to build an emergency fund. Each month takes about 20 minutes to complete.
  • Each month students manage their checking, savings, and credit card accounts as they deal with life’s expected and unexpected events that affect their budget.  
  • Within the simulation, additional personal finance tutorials are available to make sure students are learning about budgeting, banking, credit, employment, taxes, insurance, and more.
  • A class ranking based on net worth, credit score, and quality of life keep the students fully engaged and professors informed of each student’s progress.

The Investing Simulation

  • Students receive a virtual $25,000 in a brokerage account.
  • They can research U.S. stocks, ETFs, bonds and mutual funds and create their own investment portfolio.
  • All investment trades are based on real-time market prices.
  • Within the simulation, interactive tutorials help students get started and provide additional information during the simulation.
  • Students can monitor their performance versus their classmates.  At the same time, professors can track each student’s progress.

And BEST of ALL, with the new partnership between Stock-Trak and McGraw Hill, classes using the Kapoor Personal Finance textbook get a 50% savings when students register for the simulation – only $9.99 per student instead of retail price of $19.99.

Teaching Suggestions

  • Visit StockTrak.com/kapoor to learn more about the Personal Finance Budgeting and Investing Simulation.  You can learn even more by watching a short video or accessing the Kapoor demo materials located toward the bottom of the above site. 
  • It’s easy to get started.  All you need to do is access the above site, register your classes for Spring 2023, and indicate the dates you want your student to have access to the Personal Finance Simulation.  The site will generate a unique link for you to give to your students.
Categories: Budget, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapters, Chapter_10, Chapter_11, Chapter_12, Chapter_13, Chapter_14, Financial Planning Topics, Teaching Tools | Tags: , | Leave a comment

FINANCIAL EMERGENCY KIT

Posted on December 3, 2022 by Melissa Hart

In case of a natural disaster or a cyber-attack, a financial emergency kit allows you to keep running your life. These documents would prepare you for the what-ifs of life. Bottom of Form

The kit starts with knowing where your vital paperwork is stored, and where are copies kept. Two suggested storage methods are: (1) a portable, fireproof, waterproof safe, and (2) digital storage with an electronic record of account numbers and sensitive information. This information can then be accessed on your phone. Also backup your data on both an external hard drive and on a cloud service.

The important documents that you should have in both a physical and digital format are:

  • Insurance policies, insurance contact information; prescriptions, medical records
  • Birth and marriage certificates; passports; driver’s license; Social Security cards
  • Mortgage information; car registration
  • Recent tax returns; employment information
  • Wills and deeds; stocks, bonds and other negotiable certificates
  • Bank, savings. Investment, and retirement account numbers
  • Pet medical records; pet identification tags
  • Recent utility bill, school registration to prove your legal place of residence

In addition to your financial documents, also plan to have these items in your emergency kit:

  1. Water; non-perishable food; first aid kit; multi-purpose tool
  2. Flashlight; battery-powered radio; extra batteries; cellphone, charger
  3. Medications, medical items; sanitation, personal hygiene items
  4. Extra cash; contact information of family and friends
  5. Emergency blankets; maps of the area

Consider a hand-crank flashlight and radio to be able to use and charge when there’s no power.

To connect with family and others in emergency times, text instead of calling to avoid network congestion.  Use apps, social media when cell networks are overloaded.  Update your voicemail message to tell your location and status.

Be prepared with these simple things that require minimal money and a small-time investment.

For additional information on financial emergency kits, click here.

Teaching Suggestions

  • Have students identify situations in which this type of emergency kit would be appropriate.
  • Have students create a visual proposal (poster or slide presentation) to communicate the elements of an emergency kit.

Discussion Questions 

  1. What are reasons people might give for not preparing an emergency kit?
  2. Describe methods that might be used to store financial documents for emergency situations.
Categories: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Financial Planning | Tags: | Leave a comment

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