11/12/12
5th Period
English 2
PERSONAL FINANCE
Personal finance is the study of personal and family resources considered important in achieving financial success. It involves how people spend, save, protect, and invest their financial resources. It includes budgeting, tax management, cash management , use of credit cards, borrowing, major expenditures, risk management, investments, retirement planning, and estate planning.
The reason this is important for students in high school to learn is to protect their financial future. Students when they graduate high school or enter college are targets from major credit card companies. If we don’t understand how interest is accrued it can lead to a major debt that can ruin your credit and consume most if not all of your income.
Understanding how to balance a check book, save for retirement, and establish good credit is essential for students before entering into the world right out of high school. Without this knowledge we would be lost with an almost guaranteed to financial disaster. There are so many things we need to understand like recurring interest, fixed interest, and how to invest money properly.
Furthermore people need to assume some form of financial planning to achieve their financial objectives. Financial planning should reflect an individual's or family's values and life-cycle circumstances and include appropriate objectives in three broad areas. Plan for spending, plan to counter risk, and plan for capital accumulation. Success in financial planning requires an understanding of one's values.
Pursuing this further your personal values are the starting point in financial planning and budgeting. Budgeting is a process of projecting, organizing, monitoring, and controlling future income and expenditures. The purpose of budgeting is to reach financial goals. In the goal-setting phase of budgeting, goals must be specific. In particular, they should contain dollar amounts and target dates