Financial Education at BCC
The Courses
Bellevue Community College has developed eight courses that can be tailored to the workplace, social service agency, or for presentation to community groups. The eight courses are personal money management, saving, credit, taxes, risk management, real estate, investments and employee benefits. The outcomes of these courses are the behaviors that constitute good personal financial management. The course can be offered in a variety of formats. Individuals can receive college credit for completing them.
Personal Money Management
Personal money management focuses on managing personal income and expenses and their recordkeeping. Learners will be required to develop a personal budget and compile personal income statements.
Course Outline
- Cash flow management
- Comparative household expenses
- The financial evaluation of alternatives
- Personal income statement - budget against actual
- Accounting and bookkeeping of personal expenses
Outcomes
- Keep receipts and track expenses for one month to compile personal income statement by categories used by the Consumer Finance Survey
- Look for opportunities to save money - teach strategies for comparison pricing, getting bids, etc.
- Create a personal budget for the year
- Create a system for tracking expenses against budget including credit card monitoring and check book balancing
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Personal Savings
Savings; the banking industry and its products and services; savings returns, and evaluating alternative savings vehicles are the focus of this course. Learners will be able to create an annual budget, set financial goals and determine the risks and returns of various savings vehicles. They will create a personal net worth statement.
Course Outline
- The banking industry and its products and services
- Annual personal budget
- Long-term financial goals
- Investment risks (volatility and inflation)
- Time value of money (present value and future value)
- Annuity calculation
- Economic and financial evaluation of alternatives
- Net worth statement
Outcomes
- Differentiate between annual budget and long term financial goals
- Discuss and quantify major financial goals such as car, education, retirement
- Have each learner come up with individual long term financial goals
- Assess the risk associated with each of these goals (inflation)
- Determine how much has to be saved annually to achieve these goals using the time value of money
- Review several types of bank accounts (marketing brochures or review on the internet)
- Evaluate which is the best account for expenses and savings
- Calculate the cost (in annual percent) of insufficient funds or other bank fees
- Creating a net worth statement
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Personal Credit
Credit focuses on the evaluation of the credit industry and its consumer products and services. Learners will evaluate alternate credit and loan features. They will learn strategies for debt management.
Course Outline
- Credit and loan industry
- Legal aspects of credit
- Comparative evaluation of credit instruments
- Credit ratings and their impact
- Time value of money (future and present)
- Calculation of annual returns
- Debt management
Outcomes
- Evaluate "buy" messages analytically and critically
- Differentiate between rational (cognitive) and emotional (affective) buying motives
- Differentiate between ethical and unethical marketing practices
- Compare cash price to installment price in order to make a purchasing decision
- Determine periodic payment, interest and total amount required to pay to amortize a loan
- Calculate finance charges on credit card balances and cash advances
- Identify consumer assistance services provided by the public and private organizations (e.g. government, the Better Business Burea and manufacturers)
- Research consumer advocacy groups that address consumer right and responsibilities and describe how an individual can participate
- Analyze various sources and types of credit and related costs
- Select an appropriate form of credit for a particular buying decision
- Compare and contrast the various aspects of credit cards (e.g. APR, grace period, incentive buying, methods of calculating interest and fees)
- Explain credit ratings and credit reports and describe their importance to consumers
- Describe the relationship between credit rating and cost of credit
- Recognize the signals of a credit problem
- Compare and contrast the legal aspects of different forms of credit (e.g. title transfer, responsibility limits, collateral requirements and co-signing)
- Describe legal and illegal types of credit that carry high interest rates (e.g. payday loans, rent-to-buy agreements and loan sharking)
- Identify the components listed on a credit report and explain how the information is used.
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Personal Taxes
Taxes deal with individual tax filing, tax planning and maximizing after-tax returns.
Course Outline
- US taxation system--tax returns, withholding, tax credits, tax refunds, tax payments, tax penalties
- Filing tax returns
- Pre-tax spending accounts
- Tax-advantaged retirement accounts (IRAs, 401Ks, Roth IRAs)
Outcomes
- Prepare a tax return
- Engage in tax planning
- Calculate benefits of pre-tax spending accounts
- Calculate the difference between after-tax and pre-tax returns on retirement accounts
- Evaluate eligibility for Earned Income Tax Credit and tax credits for 401K (low income) and their effect on savings
- Evaluate strategies for maximizing after-tax returns
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Personal Risk Management
Personal Risk management focuses on the insurance industry and its products. The learner will evaluate personal insurance needs.
Course Outline
- Insurance (Property, auto, renters) - Deductibles, limits, etc.)
- Life insurance (term, whole life, variable annuities and how they work)
- Health insurance and how it works (Deductibles, copays, etc.)
- Long term care
- Medicare and Medicaid
Outcomes
- Analyze personal risk and determine methods of mitigating this risk
- Evaluate various forms of life insurance and their benefits and costs
- Prepare personal information for appropriate insurance quotes - Evaluate three quotes for property insurance
- Evaluate the differences in risk between three or more health insurance packages
- Analyze risk management case studies
- Articulate the resources available under Medicare and Medicaid
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Personal Real Estate
Course Outline
- Single-family real estate in the US
- Historical returns on single-family real estate
- Evaluating the single-family homes as an investment
- Interest rates and how they work.
- Mortgage maturity and risks.
- Mortgage payment calculation.
- The home buying process
Outcomes
- Evaluate case study between buying and renting including investment and tax benefits
- Articulate rights in the home buying process
- Review home buying programs
- Articulate steps in the home buying process and risks in each step
- Financial evaluation of various mortages (fixed rates, APR, variable rates, interest only, terms, points, etc. )
- Calculate the effect of brokers' fees, title insurance, inspections and lawyers fees on a home purchase
- Evaluate the effect of interest rates on mortgages
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Personal Investment
Investments will focus on financial goals, historical risk and returns of major asset classes, asset allocation, maximizing after-tax returns and monitoring investments.
Course Outline
- Personal Financial goals
- Historical returns
- Investment risk
- Asset allocation
- Maximizing after-tax returns
- Monitoring investments
Outcomes
- Evaluate budget versus long-term financial goals
- Articulate personal financial goals
- Differentiate between asset classes, their characteristics, and their historical returns and risk
- Articulate how asset allocation is done
- Assess Mutual funds, index funds, ETFs
- Evaluate case studies of traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, 401Ks and other tax-advantaged savings
- Evaluate investment returns versus cost of debt
- Evaluate investments against indices
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Employee Benefits for Personal Finance
Employee benefits outlines basic benefits offered by firms. Learners will become familiar with what these benefits achieve and how to use them for long-term financial planning.
Course Outline
- Social Security
- Unemployment insurance
- Medical Insurance
- Disability
- Dependent Care and Health Care Spending Accounts
- Retirement (401K, profit sharing, pensions)
Outcomes
- Review a social security summary statement and evaluate how benefits are computed.
- Determine how unemployment benefits are given.
- Describe major employee benefits (medical, disability, life, etc.) and what they cover
- Analyze a case study of health insurance and determine relevant costs
- Evaluate the differences in risk between three or more medical insurance packages
- Taking the employer's perspective design an employee benefits package using relevant components - calculate the cost to the employer and the benefit to the employee
- Evaluate the financial benefits of spending accounts
- Calculate the after-tax benefit to the employee of 401K, profiting sharing or pension benefits
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