Personal Financial Literacy

Hours: 40 / Access Length: 12 Months / Delivery: Online, Self-Paced
Retail Price: $199.00

Course Overview:

In this course, we will learn the basics of personal finance. We will explore how to make a budget and finance college and learn how the economy and taxes will affect you. We will also learn about various forms of insurance, saving and spending, and how to save for retirement. 

Students will:

• Analyze the benefits of good financial decision-making.
• Describe the purpose of a financial plan.
• Explain the steps in financial decision-making.
• Describe the importance of budgeting.
• Discuss how one can gain the skills needed for a career choice.
• Explain how economic factors impact financial decisions.
• Describe how taxes affect your financial plan.
• Describe the keys to building and maintaining healthy credit.
• Describe the key features and qualities of personal loans.
• Explain how credit cards, checking and savings accounts, and a variety of investments work.
• Explain the unique issues and challenges of financing a home.
• Learn the basics of having a checking account, including how to balance an account.
• Explain the basics of retirement planning.

Course Outline:

Lesson 1: Financial Responsibility and Decision-Making

In this lesson, we will begin by looking at the definition of personal finance and good financial decision-making. We will also explore budgeting and career readiness. 

Lesson 2: The Economy, Government, and Financial Planning

In this lesson, we will learn how greater outside influences can affect your finances. Taxes, economical changes, and various types of insurance will be explored. 

Lesson 3: Spending and Credit

In this lesson, we will look at the vital topics of spending and credit. Topics will include credit, personal loans, credit cards, and financing a home. 

Lesson 4: Saving and Investing

In this lesson, we will look at the opposite of spending, and investigate saving. This lesson covers banking, saving, and investing.

Lesson 5: Retirement and Estate Planning

In this lesson, we will learn about retirement and estate planning. Diversified investments, the time value of money, and knowing how much to invest for retirement will all be covered. 

All necessary course materials are included.

System Requirements:

Internet Connectivity Requirements:

• Cable, Fiber, DSL, or LEO Satellite (i.e. Starlink) internet with speeds of at least 10mb/sec download and 5mb/sec upload are recommended for the best experience.

NOTE: While cellular hotspots may allow access to our courses, users may experience connectivity issues by trying to access our learning management system.  This is due to the potential high download and upload latency of cellular connections.   Therefore, it is not recommended that students use a cellular hotspot as their primary way of accessing their courses.

Hardware Requirements:

• CPU: 1 GHz or higher
• RAM: 4 GB or higher
• Resolution: 1280 x 720 or higher.  1920x1080 resolution is recommended for the best experience.
• Speakers / Headphones
• Microphone for Webinar or Live Online sessions.

Operating System Requirements:

• Windows 7 or higher.
• Mac OSX 10 or higher.
• Latest Chrome OS
• Latest Linux Distributions
  

NOTE: While we understand that our courses can be viewed on Android and iPhone devices, we do not recommend the use of these devices for our courses. The size of these devices do not provide a good learning environment for students taking online or live online based courses.

Web Browser Requirements:

• Latest Google Chrome is recommended for the best experience.
• Latest Mozilla FireFox
• Latest Microsoft Edge
• Latest Apple Safari

Basic Software Requirements (These are recommendations of software to use):

• Office suite software (Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, or LibreOffice)
• PDF reader program (Adobe Reader, FoxIt)
• Courses may require other software that is described in the above course outline.