Skip to main content
Money and You:
Course Notes
Dr. Jesse Johnson
Contents
Search Book
close
Search Results:
No results.
Dark Mode
Prev
Up
Next
\(\newcommand{\N}{\mathbb N} \newcommand{\Z}{\mathbb Z} \newcommand{\Q}{\mathbb Q} \newcommand{\R}{\mathbb R} \newcommand{\lt}{<} \newcommand{\gt}{>} \newcommand{\amp}{&} \definecolor{fillinmathshade}{gray}{0.9} \newcommand{\fillinmath}[1]{\mathchoice{\colorbox{fillinmathshade}{$\displaystyle \phantom{\,#1\,}$}}{\colorbox{fillinmathshade}{$\textstyle \phantom{\,#1\,}$}}{\colorbox{fillinmathshade}{$\scriptstyle \phantom{\,#1\,}$}}{\colorbox{fillinmathshade}{$\scriptscriptstyle\phantom{\,#1\,}$}}} \)
Front Matter
1
Week 1: Introduction, Money Psychology, and Setting Financial Goals
1.1
Welcome to Money and You!
1.1.1
What this course is not
1.1.2
Course Norms
1.2
Money and You
1.2.1
Activity: What do you want to learn?
1.2.2
Small-group conversation: Why do you want to learn financial literacy?
1.2.3
Debrief
1.2.4
Activity: Money personality quiz
1.2.5
Debrief
1.3
Money Psychology
1.3.1
Money Personality
1.3.2
Money Biases
1.3.3
Activity: Think About Your Biases
1.3.4
Debrief
1.4
Setting Financial Goals
1.4.1
Activity: Preliminary Financial Goals
1.4.2
STAR Financial Goals
1.4.3
Activity: Setting STAR Financial Goals
1.4.4
Debrief
1.4.5
Example of a Goal Going Wrong
1.5
FAQ
1.6
Homework for Week 1
2
Week 2: Budgeting
2.1
Do You Need a Budget?
2.2
Budgeting Rules
2.2.1
The 50-30-20 Rule
2.2.2
Activity: Classifying Spending
2.2.3
Debrief
2.2.4
Allocating Money under the 50-30-20 Rule
2.2.5
The 80-20 Budget Plan
2.2.6
The Envelope System (A.K.A. “Cash Stuffing”
2.2.7
The Zero-Based Budget
2.3
Balancing Your Budget
2.3.1
What to Do When Your Budget Isn’t Balanced
2.3.2
What Not to Do When Your Budget Isn’t Balanced
2.3.3
Some Potentially-Risky Ways to Get Relief from Bills
2.3.4
Inconsistent Paychecks
2.3.5
Rainy-Day Funds
2.3.6
Negotiaing Expenses
2.3.7
Activity: Helping Balance a Budget
2.4
FAQ
2.5
Homework for Week 2
3
Week 3: Budgeting Tools and Saving Money
3.1
Budgeting Tools
3.1.1
Paper Tools
3.1.2
Spreadsheets
3.1.3
Apps
3.2
Saving Money on Groceries
3.2.1
Cooking vs. Eating Out
3.2.2
Activity: Why Do You Eat Out?
3.2.3
Buying in Bulk
3.2.4
Comparing Prices
3.2.5
Cook Once, Eat a Lot
3.2.6
Wholesale Clubs
3.2.7
Activity: It Costs Money to Save
3.2.8
Alternative-Brand Stores
3.2.9
Shopping the Sales
3.2.10
Activity: What Are You Going to Do to Save on Groceries?
3.3
Saving Money on Housing
3.3.1
Rent and Mortgages
3.3.2
Utilities
3.3.3
Activity: Lower Your Electricity Bill
3.4
Other Ways to Save Money
3.4.1
Check Your Subscriptions
3.4.2
Pay Yourself First
3.4.3
Pay Off High-interest Debt
3.5
Homework for Week 3
4
Week 4: Credit and Credit Cards
4.1
An Introduction to Credit
4.1.1
How Credit is Measured
4.2
Building Good Credit
4.2.1
What Determines Your Credit?
4.2.2
Starting Your Credit Journey
4.2.3
Maintaining Your Credit
4.2.4
Activity: Start Building Your Credit
4.3
Credit Cards
4.3.1
Revolving Credit
4.3.2
The Economics of Credit Cards
4.3.3
How to Get a Credit Card
4.3.4
How a Credit Card Works
4.3.5
Activity: Credit Cards and Interest
4.3.6
Credit Card Benefits
4.3.7
Credit Limits
4.4
Using a Credit Card Responsibly
4.4.1
Activity: Is Credit Card Debt Unusual?
4.4.2
Debrief
4.4.3
Activity: Helping Manny
4.4.4
Debrief
4.5
Homework for Week 4
5
Week 5: Debt and Debt Management
5.1
Properties of Loans
5.1.1
Principal
5.1.2
Balance
5.1.3
Term
5.1.4
Collateral
5.1.5
Interest
5.1.6
Fees
5.1.7
APR
5.2
How Interest Compounds
5.2.1
Compounding
5.2.2
Conversion Periods and Effective APR
5.2.3
Activity: Why APR Matters
5.3
How to Get a Loan
5.3.1
Credit
5.3.2
Debt-to-Income Ratio
5.3.3
Employment History
5.3.4
Other Factors
5.3.5
Activity: Why Did They Get Rejected?
5.4
Predatory-Lending
5.4.1
Targets
5.4.2
Examples
5.4.3
How to Detect a Predatory Loan
5.5
Debt Management
5.5.1
Good-bad-Debt
5.5.2
How Debt Happens
5.5.3
Do I Have a Debt Problem?
5.5.4
Activity: Catch the Red Flags
5.6
Getting Out of Debt
5.6.1
High-Rate Method
5.6.2
Snowball-Method
5.6.3
Activity: Helping Someone Get Out of Debt
5.6.4
Bankruptcy
5.6.5
The Pros and Cons of Bankruptcy
5.7
Homework Week 5
6
Week 6: Investing
6.1
Risk and Reward
6.1.1
Risk vs. Reward
6.1.2
Risk Tolerance
6.1.3
Activity: Risk Tolerance Quiz
6.2
Saving and Investing
6.2.1
Saving vs. Investing
6.2.2
Savings Opportunities
6.2.3
Inverstment Opportunities
6.3
Week 6 Homework
7
Week 7: Retirement
7.1
Rate of Return
7.1.1
Introduction to Rate of Return
7.1.2
Activity: Calculate the Investments
7.1.3
What is a Good Rate of Return?
7.1.4
Rule of 72
7.2
Retirement
7.2.1
Why Retire?
7.2.2
Saving for Retirement - the Whys
7.2.3
Activity: When to Start Saving for Retirement
7.2.4
How Much Do I Need To Retire?
7.2.5
Activity: Saving for Retirement Isn’t that Scary
7.2.6
Debrief: How Realistic is this Savings Plan?
7.3
Social Security
7.3.1
What Social Security Is
7.3.2
What Social Security Isn’t
7.3.3
Is Social Security Going Away?
7.4
Week 7 Homework
8
Week 8: Retirement Part 2
8.1
401(k)’s and 403(b)’s
8.1.1
Employer-Sponsored Retirement
8.1.2
401(k)’s and 403(b)’s
8.1.3
Taxation and Roth Accounts
8.2
IRA’s
8.2.1
IRA
8.3
Pensions
8.3.1
The Beauty of Pensions
8.3.2
Vesting
8.4
Week 8 Homework
9
Week 9: Risk and Insurance
9.1
Risk
9.1.1
The Birthday Problem
9.1.2
The Probability-that-Something-Happens
9.1.3
Why It Matters
9.2
Insurance
9.2.1
What Is Insurance?
9.2.2
How Insurance Works
9.2.3
Mandatory Insurance
9.3
Properties of Insurance
9.3.1
Deductibles
9.3.2
Co-pays
9.3.3
Policy Limits
9.4
Health Insurance
9.4.1
Single-Payor vs. Private
9.4.2
Employer-Sposored Health Insurance
9.4.3
The Issue of Coverage
9.4.4
The Other Issue of Coverage
9.4.5
Choosing Health Insurance
9.5
Life Insurance
9.5.1
The Basics
9.5.2
The Costs
9.5.3
The Flavors of Health Insurance
9.6
Car Insurance
9.6.1
Types of Coverage
9.6.2
Totalling a Car
9.6.3
Price Factors
9.7
Other-Common-Insurances
9.7.1
Property and Renter’s Insurance
9.7.2
Disability and Long-Term Care Insurances
9.8
Week 9 Homework
10
Week 10: Housing
10.1
The Forms of Housing
10.1.1
Single-Family Homes
10.1.2
Multi-Family Homes
10.1.3
Apartments
10.1.4
Condominiums
10.1.5
Mobile Homes
10.1.6
A Note on Stigma
10.2
Owning vs. Renting
10.2.1
The Pros of Owning
10.2.2
The Pros of Renting
10.3
The True Costs of Owning
10.3.1
Mortgages
10.3.2
Financing a Mortgage
10.3.3
Insurance
10.3.4
Taxes
10.3.5
Utilities
10.3.6
Upkeep
10.3.7
Putting It All Together
10.4
The True Cost of Renting
10.4.1
Rent
10.4.2
The Problem of High Rent Increases
10.4.3
The Rule of 3
10.4.4
Utilities
10.4.5
Other Costs
10.4.6
Other Considerations
10.5
Should You Rent or Buy?
10.5.1
Personal Preferences
10.6
Week 10 Homework
11
Week 11: Scams and Fraud
11.1
Common Scams
11.1.1
Online Dating Scams
11.1.2
Job Scams
11.1.3
Phishing
11.1.4
Service Scams
11.1.5
Investment Scams
11.1.6
Other Scams
11.1.7
Activity: Spot the Scammers (emails)
11.1.8
Activity: Spot the Fake Dating Profiles
11.2
Identify Fraud
11.2.1
Information They Want
11.2.2
How Your Information Is Stolen
11.2.3
How To Recognize Identity Theft
11.2.4
How to Prevent Identity Theft
11.2.5
What to Do When You’re the Victim of Identify Theft
11.2.6
Activity: Protecting Yourself From Identity Theft
11.3
Week 11 Homework
12
Week 12: Taxes
12.1
How Taxes Work
12.1.1
Kinds of Taxes
12.1.2
Where Do Our Taxes Go?
12.1.3
How Much Do I Have to Pay in Taxes?
12.1.4
Do Proportional Taxes Exist?
12.2
Income Tax Filing
12.2.1
Terminology
12.2.2
Tax Brackets and Rates
12.2.3
Activity: Determine How Much You Owe
12.3
Tax Forms
12.3.1
W4
12.3.2
I9
12.3.3
W2
12.3.4
W9
12.3.5
1099
12.3.6
1098
12.4
Filing Taxes and the 1040 Form
12.4.1
The 1040 Form
12.5
Week 12 Homework
Backmatter
Colophon
Colophon
This book was authored in PreTeXt.
