Proposed Tier II course
FCSC 302 Family and Consumer Personal Finance
Web-Delivered
Home Department Information:
Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences (FCSC)
520-621-3346
Family and Consumer Sciences Bldg Rm 123
For majors offered by FCSC (FSHD, FACS Ed, or RCSC), please check
http://ag.arizona.edu/fcs/
Instructor Information:
Richard Serlin
Phone: 520-792-2181
Email: serlin@email.arizona.edu
Office Hours: TBA
Class location: Online through D2L
Catalog Course Description
A study of personal and family financial issues that affect people’s quality of life; an
analysis of personal financial information resources, the concept of the time-value of
money, and discussion of personal financial issues concerning the economic
environment, financial statements, college planning, career planning, tax, credit, housing,
insurance, retirement planning, and investment.
Course background
Today in the US, many families and consumers are facing personal finance crises that
lead to serious societal problems, including an increasing incidence of personal
bankruptcy, low household savings rates, and high household debt. Family and
individual financial well-being is critical to the developing of healthy communities and a
stable, strong economy. Research has shown that financial education leads to improved
financial literacy and financial security for families and consumers. In this course,
students will explore the personal and family financial issues that affect people’s quality
of life. Students will study and analyze various personal financial information resources
available on the Internet, the concept of the time-value of money, and discuss personal
financial issues concerning the economic environment, financial statements, college
planning, career planning, tax, credit, housing, insurance, retirement planning, and
investment. In addition, the course will introduce career opportunities in retail financial
services and family social services. Cognitive decision-making skills, goal-setting skills,
and financial skills learned from this class will be helpful for enhancing individual wellbeing and personal lives as well as in the setting of retail financial services and family
social services.
Course Objectives and Learning Outcomes
1.
To develop the knowledge and skills necessary to take advantage of favorable financial
opportunities, to resolve personal financial challenges, to achieve self-satisfaction, and
ultimately to strive toward financial security.
2.
To develop a solid base and framework for making personal and the family financial
decisions that will lead to improving the quality of life and individual and family wellbeing.
3.
To understand the social and economic contexts of personal and family financial issues
4.
To be able to understand and apply complex financial concepts, knowledge and
skills to making personal financial decisions
5.
To understand the time-value of money and how to use a financial calculator to
compute present value, future value and periodic payments
6.
To use a variety of calculating tools to plan and manage finances in following areas:
budgeting, college planning, career planning, tax, credit, housing, insurance,
retirement planning, and investment
7.
To evaluate and analyze information recourses on the internet and use other
materials for the purpose of personal financial planning
8.
To use basic financial functions on computer software to solve personal financial
problems and make short- and long-term financial plans
9.
To understand career opportunities in retail financial services and family social
services
10. To become knowledgeable consumers, savers, investors, users of credit, money
managers, citizens and members of a global workforce and society.
Honors Option
Students electing to take the honors option are required to undertake a more advanced
and longer version of the assignment-1 research paper. Interested students must contact
the instructor concerning their topics. The instructor will then assign advanced reading,
research and/or other requirements, which must be incorporated into the paper. The
length requirement is 20 – 25 pages, double spaced, plus bibliography.
Preliminary Knowledge
There is no official prerequisite to this course. However, because RCSC 202 builds on the
concepts of INDV 102, Money, Consumers, and Family, it is strongly suggested that
students take INDV 102 first http://tcainstitute.org/resources/indv102online.htm .
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Students who haven’t take INDV 102, will be nevertheless be responsible for information
from that course, information which can be acquired by reading the following books:


The Two Income Trap, by Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi, and
All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan, by Elizabeth Warren and
Amelia Warren Tyagi.
Textbooks, Software, and Calculator
Required textbooks
Bejtelsmit, V. (2006). Personal Finance: Skills for Life. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Hacker, J. S. (2006). The Great Risk Shift. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Frank, R. H. (2000). Luxury Fever: Money and Happiness in an Era of Excess. Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press.
Additional readings will be posted on the course website at: http://help.d2l.arizona.edu/
Software: Microsoft Money 2007 Deluxe, Cost: $30-$50 depending on current
promotions
Financial Calculator: HP-10B II, Cost: $30-$35.
Course Methodology
The course will be taught online via the learning software Desire2Learn (D2L). Students
unfamiliar with D2L can learn the software via the Help service at:
http://help.d2l.arizona.edu/forstudents.htm .
Online Discussion
The course will employ a D2L discussion board on which students can post comments
and reply to the comments of others. Please see the D2L Help service for further details.
For each of the assigned discussions, topics and/or questions will be provided to get the
discussion started. The instructor will also monitor the postings and occasionally
participate.
Discussion is essentially graded as credit/no credit. A student will receive credit if for
each discussion the student has posted at least 5 paragraphs of reasonable length and
adequate content. An acceptable paragraph must develop a controlling idea, providing
informed and thoughtful elaboration showing that the student has been keeping up with
the reading.
A student who does not achieve acceptable paragraphs will receive some level of no
credit, meaning that the student will lose 1 to 10 points from his or her end-of-semester
total, depending on how much the submitted paragraph falls short of what is deemed
adequate. Essentially, if a student keeps up with the reading and simply makes a good
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effort, the student need not worry; credit will be given, no points deducted from the total
possible.
The Discussion questions/topics will be posted at 12:00 AM on the first day of the week
in which the discussion is assigned. Students may begin at that time, and have until the
last day of that week at 11:59 PM to complete their input.
Students who have trouble getting into the discussion, can complete their five paragraphs
by writing a short essay in response to the discussion questions/topics. The essay (of fiveparagraphs at least) can reply to one or several of the discussion questions/topics. It is not
necessary to reply to all of them. The five paragraphs can also reply partly or completely
to the resources that others post on the board.
As a convenient way to view the input of others, and view the entire discussion laid out
on a single scrolling screen, hit the print view button. That will provide the clearest view.
Also, regarding readability, please do not submit your discussion input in the form of an
attachment. Your classmates cannot see an attachment displayed on the same page with
the input of the others, and so viewing your input will require extra keystrokes.
Assignments
The course includes two assignments to be submitted via the D2L Dropbox.
Assignment 1. An In-depth Research Paper on a Personal Financial Topic
Each student is required to conduct in-depth research on a personal finance subject of the
student’s choice and submit a research paper (10–15 pages, double-spaced, plus
bibliography). Any standard format for a formal research paper is acceptable. Examples
of topics include: Financing a College Education, including 529 plans, prepaid tuition
plans, federal and state financial aid programs, and more; Retirement Saving, including
IRAs, 401(k)s, traditional pensions, and more; and The Fringe Economy, including
payday loan shops, check cashing shops, equity stripping operations, and more. The
paper should focus on the most important aspects of the subject with regard to society as
a whole and to individuals and individual families. Footnotes are not strictly required, but
all facts presented must reference sources. Students have the option to revise and
resubmit their papers for a re-grading. Papers can be re-submitted any time before the
first day of final exam week.
Assignment 2. Microsoft Money Personal Budgeting, Analysis, and Future Planning
Using the program Microsoft Money, students are required to engage in in-depth personal
financial planning. Students will enter all current cost and income information, and then
perform a series of analyses. They will then construct a financial plan for the period until
graduation. Next, students will estimate their income and expenses after completing their
educations. With this information they again perform a series of analyses and construct a
financial plan.
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Exams
The midterm and final will both contain a combination of multiple-choice, fill-in-theblank, and essay questions. There will typically be two essay questions per exam
requiring responses of 1-2 double spaced pages.
Course Schedule
Weekly
Class #
Due
Date
Item Due
1
Video: Time Value of Money, Using a
Financial Calculator and Microsoft Excel, by
Richard Serlin, (using Camtasia technology for
perfect video of the computer screen -- the
camera is wired directly to the computer)
Goals and Budgeting (Ch. 3, Personal
Finance: Skills for life)
2
Video: Microsoft Money I, by Richard Serlin
(using Camtasia)
Income Tax Planning (Ch. 4, Personal
Finance: Skills for life)
3
4
Video: Microsoft Money II, by Richard Serlin
Cash Management, Purchase, & Credit
Decision (Chs. 5 and 6, Personal Finance:
Skills for life)
The Costs of Prestige to Society (the Prestige
Arms Race), The Recent Prestige Spending
Boom (Ch.s 1-4, Luxury Fever)
Consumer Loans (Ch. 7, Personal Finance:
Skills for life)
5
6
7
Topics and Assigned Material
Financial Planning, Financial Statements (Chs.
1 and 2, Personal Finance: Skills for life),
Time Value of Money (Ch. 2, Personal
Finance: Skills for life)
TBA
Midterm Exam
Cognitive Models of Human Happiness, (Ch.s
5-6, Luxury Fever)
Economic Externalities (Chs. 7-10, Luxury
Fever)
5
Weekly
Class #
Due
Date
Item Due
Article: Making Smart Housing Decisions, by
Richard Serlin
Property and Liability Insurance (Ch. 9,
Personal Finance: Skills for life)
8
The New Economic Insecurity (Chs. 1 and 2,
The Great Risk Shift)
Employee Benefits (Ch. 10, Personal Finance:
Skills for life)
9
10
11
Topics and Assigned Material
Housing and Auto Decisions (Ch. 8, Personal
Finance: Skills for life)
Risky Jobs (Ch. 3, The Great Risk Shift)
Investing Basics (Ch. 11, Personal Finance:
Skills for life)
TBA
Assignment 1
12
Risky Families (Ch. 4, The Great Risk Shift)
Stock Investing (Ch. 12, Personal Finance:
Skills for life)
Risky Retirement (Ch. 5, The Great Risk Shift)
Bonds (Ch. 13, Personal Finance: Skills for
life)
13
14
TBA
Assignment 2
15
TBA
Final Exam
Risky Health Care (Ch. 6, The Great Risk
Shift)
Mutual Funds (Ch. 14, Personal Finance:
Skills for life)
Retirement and College Funding (Ch. 15,
Personal Finance: Skills for life)
Careers in Personal Finance and Retail
Financial Services
Grading
Requirement
Points
6
Assignment 1: Research Paper
20
Assignment 2: Microsoft Money Personal Budgeting, Analysis, and Future
Planning
20
Midterm
25
Final
35
Total
100
Scale:
Points
Grade
90 – 100
A
80 – 89.99
B
70 – 79.99
C
60 – 69.99
D
59.99 or less
E
Academic Dishonesty
All students are expected to take the exams on their own, with no help whatsoever from
others. For assignments, students are allowed to ask questions and receive advice from
others, so long as the bulk of the work is their own. Academic dishonesty is an extremely
serious infraction. Any evidence of such will be turned over to the Dean’s office and may
result in expulsion and a permanent mark on the student's records.
Due Dates
If assignments are turned in late, they will still be accepted, but points will be deducted
depending on how late; however, if a student has a legitimate excuse for late completion,
such as a serious illness or accident, then she will not be penalized.
Course Policies
1) The course abides by university policies against plagiarism, etc., within the Student
Code of Academic Conduct: http://studpubs.web.arizona.edu/policies/cacaint.htm .
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2) Students registered with the Disability Resource Center should submit appropriate
documentation if the student requests reasonable accommodations, per university
policy: http:/drc.arizona.edu/instructor/syllabus-statement.shtml .
3) This course will follow university guidelines regarding the confidentiality of student
records. For details, please see http://www.registrar.arizona.edu/ferpa/default.htm
4) Subject-to-change statement: Information contained in the course syllabus, other than
the grade and absence policy, may be subject to change with advance notice, as
deemed appropriate by the instructor.
5) This course abides by university policies against threatening behavior exhibited by
students, as detailed at: http://policy.web.arizona.edu/~policy/threaten.shtml .
6) Attendance will not be taken in this course. Grades will be based on mastery of the
material as demonstrated by the items in the grading scheme.
7) Student Code of Academic Integrity: Students are encouraged to share intellectual
views and discuss freely the principles and applications of course materials. However,
graded work/exercises must be the product of independent effort unless otherwise
instructed. Students are expected to adhere to the UA Code of Academic Integrity as
described in the UA General Catalog: http://dos.web.arizona.edu/uapolicies/cai2.html
8) This course abides by university policies regarding the confidentiality of student
records, as detailed at: http://www.registrar.arizona.edu/ferpa/default.htm .
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