Economics Homework Help
Economics Homework Help. short-term money management and long-term financial security
The instruction and grading rubric file attached
Instructions
Step 1: Complete a Daily Spending Diary
The use of a Daily Spending Diary will provide information to better understand your spending patterns. Use The Daily Spending Diary sheets to record your spending each day for one month in the categories provided. You can indicate the use of a credit card with (CR). This experience will help you better understand your spending habits and identify desired changes you might want to make in your spending activities.
A sincere effort with this activity will result in beneficial information for monitoring and controlling your spending. Using a Daily Spending Diary can help to:
Steps 2: Research Student Loan Debt
The majority of undergraduate students take out student loans to supplement tuition expense. Some student have student loans and do not realize it. The first part of Step 2 requires you to visit https://studentaid.gov or call the EKU Student Accounting Office to find out if you have student loans. If you do have loans, follow the steps to gather the required information to help you plan your debt for the reminder of your time as an undergraduate student. Be sure to ask every Professor you have if they know of any opportunities for scholarships. There are many scholarships at EKU that few students apply for. If you do not have scholarships, work hard to seek out scholarship opportunities!
Student Loan Tip 1: If you are taking out more in loans than you need, do not continue to do this in the future. Tip 2: You do not have to wait until you graduate to start paying down your student loan debt. Tip 3: Monitor your student loan debt closely at least once per semester.
If you do not have student loans, use the debt form to fill out for your credit card debt or car loan.
If you do not have any type of debt, sign the form certifying this and move on to the next step.
Step 3: Create your Financial Goals
Creating Short-term, Intermediate and Long-Term Goals assists you in achieving lifelong financial security. Think ahead, plan ahead.
Create the following S.M.A.R.T financial goals for yourself/your household:
(See textbook for definition of a SMART Goal and the time intervals appropriate for each goal type. You will be graded on accuracy.) Each saving goal should include: 1) a dollar amount to save each month; 2) length of time you will need to save/pay that amount, 3) a start and end date; and 4) the amount you should have accumulated by the end-date of the goal. Some goals will not start this year. For example, funding your 401(k) and IRA accounts cannot begin until you start earning taxable income. [Hint: Your first short-term goal should be to create an emergency savings account.]
Analyze your Daily Spending Diary and decide if your spending behavior aligns with your personal financial goals. If it does not, make adjustments before you prepare your Personal Budget.
Are you spending more than you earn? This means you are taking on more debt each month. This can be normal for a student. Think about why this is happening in your personal situation and how long you can allow it to continue.
Step 4: Create a Personal Monthly Budget
Monthly and Annual Budgets are used to help you achieve financial goals by monitoring your progress toward savings and debt reduction each month/year.
The goal is to set up a Personal Monthly Budget where you spend less than you earn each month. The surplus, or amount left over goes into your savings accounts each month in sums equivalent to the amounts determined using your SMART goals. The budget you submit with this assignment should include at least one savings amount that corresponds with at least one of your short-term goals.
Step 5: Submit the following items as Project 1:
"Our Prices Start at $11.99. As Our First Client, Use Coupon Code GET15 to claim 15% Discount This Month!!"
