CENTRAL WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
College of Business
Department of Finance & OSC
Course Syllabus
Course Title: Personal Financial Planning
Course Number: FIN 474
Section: 01
Term: Spring 2011
Credit: 5 Units
Location and Time: SHAW 210, TTH 7:40p - 9:50
Instructor: Dr. Michael T. Young
Office Location: Shaw Smyser 301
Telephone and e-mail: (W) 963-2912, (H) 925-1964, youngm@cwu.edu
If you call me at home please call before 10:00 PM. If you are using a cell phone it must
show your ID for me to answer and it must be a local call for me to return your call if you
leave a message.
Office Hours: TTH 10:00a-12:00a, or by appointment
Course Description: Introduction to full range of financial planning decisions, including: budgeting,
investing, tax planning, risk management, employee benefits, retirement, and estate planning.
Course Prerequisites: FIN 370
Course Text, Required and Recommended Materials: Focus on Personal Finance 3e, 2010, by
Kapoor, Dlabay, and Hughes. A 3/5 spiral notebook, access to the internet, a non-programmable
financial calculator (I recommend Texas Instruments BAII Plus).
Course Objective: This course deals with issues faced by individuals in financial planning. The
objective is to prepare the student for the various topics they will encounter during their life.
Coverage includes: 1) creating a budget and cash flow tracking, 2) tax planning, 3) Banking services,
4) Consumer credit issues, 5) Home financing, 6) Insurance, 7) Investing in financial instruments,
and 8) Retirement and estate planning.
Course Requirements: There will be one mid-term exam and a final. Any material from the text or
lecture is considered testable. There will be no makeup exams for any absence that was not preapproved. The mid-term will be worth 45%, the final is worth 45%. Your daily expense report and
budget is worth 10%. You will lose 1% for any day that you do not have your daily expense report
with you in class and up to date. The date for the mid-term which appears in the following tentative
schedule is not written in stone, but will be given after the material has been covered. The student is
responsible to be aware of any changes to the schedule.
Grades will be assigned on the following basis: 90% to 100% = A, 80% to less than 90% = B,
65% to less than 80% = C, 55% to less than 65% = D, less than 55% = F.
Class Attendance and Academic Honesty: Class attendance is expected and the student is
responsible for all assignments announced during class periods. Any student found cheating will be
assigned a failing grade for the course and may be reported to the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs
and the Dean of the College of Business for further disciplinary action.
Good study habits are a must for this class! If you apply yourself you should have little or no
problem passing. A rule of thumb is that you should spend 3 hours in study for every hour in lecture.
Allow me to make some suggestions: 1) Read the material BEFORE lecture. 2) Try to do the
homework after reading the material, but before lecture. Any problems or questions can then be
asked about during lecture. 3) Every day after class review the material covered in that day's lecture
as well as the previous day's lecture. 4) If you have some point that you do not understand ASK!
Asking questions does not indicate that you are stupid. It does show me that you have a willingness
to learn.
Tentative Schedule
Date
3/29
3/31
4/5
4/7
4/12
4/14
4/19
4/21
4/26
4/28
5/3
5/5
5/10
5/12
5/17
5/19
5/25
5/27
6/1
6/3
6/7
Chapter
Topic
Introduction
1
Personal Financial Planning in Action
*** Budget Due ***
2
Money Management Skills
3
Taxes in Your Financial Plan
4
Saving and Payment Services
5
Consumer Credit
6
Consumer Purchasing Strategies
7
Selecting and Financing Housing
*** EXAM 1 (Chapters 1 – 7) ***
8
Home and Automobile Insurance
9
Health and Disability Income Insurance
*** Budget Due ***
10
Financial Planning with Life Insurance
11
Investing Basics and Evaluating Bonds
12
Investing in Stocks
13
Investing in Mutual Funds
14
Retirement and Estate Planning
Slack
Slack
Slack
*** Budget Due ***
Slack
*** FINAL (Chapters 8 – 14) *** 10:00 – 12:00
Chapter Problems
1: 1 - 13
2: 1 - 14
3: 1 - 13
4: 1 - 13
5: 1 - 11
6: 1 - 12
7: 1 - 13
8: 1 - 11
9: 1 - 10
10: 1 - 11
11: 1 - 14
12: 1 - 15
13: 1 - 14
14: 1 - 13