PERSONAL FINANCE
Teacher – Roger Jones
Contact information – 615-822-2375
E-mail – Roger.Jones@JP2hs.org
Textbook – Personal Finance Jack R. Kapoor, Les R. Dlabay, Robert j. Hughes
ISBN- 978-0-07-895839-7
Course Overview
This Personal Finance course will cover real life issues that face every person no matter the occupation,
nationality, or economic background. The course will expose students to every aspect of Personal Finance from
getting that first job and filling out a W-4 form, to the breakdown of withholdings on the first paycheck, to
filling out a 1040ez tax form, all the way to setting up that last financial plan, estate planning. The class will
give students tools that they can take from the class and put to use as soon as they leave the classroom. This is a
must take class for anyone that wants to get a head start on their financial future.
Below is a course outline, which gives a description of each topic that will be covered and what will be
taught. Each section will have homework or class work assignments and a test. For some sections there will be a
guest speaker that will come and talk with the class about the section at hand. For each section with a speaker
there will be an essay due from notes taken from the lecture. The sections with the asterisk in front of them will
have the speakers.
If assignments for each section are not turned in by the time the test is given for that section, the student
will receive no credit for that assignment.
Semester 1:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
Career Planning
Financial Decisions and Goals
Personal Financial Records
Taxes *
Banking *
Credit
Mid-Term Review / Exam
1-2 wks
1-2 wks
1-2 wks
1-2 wks
1-2 wks
1-2 wks
1wk
Semester2:
7) Investing *
8) Consumer Purchasing
9) Housing
10) Home / Auto Insurance
11) Life / Health Insurance *
12) Retirement / Estate Planning *
Final Review / Exam
1-2 wks
1-2 wks
1-2 wks
1-2 wks
1-2 wks
1-2 wks
1 wk
Type
Description
Homework
Daily preparation
for class that
involves reading
and doing
section
assessments, in
class assignments
and bringing
outside
documents
Chapter Assessments: Answer questions about chapter
content and filling out various forms and documents
Outside Speaker
Presentation on
various topics
covered in class
Students prepare an essay based on the information that
they receive from the speaker, text and outside sources.
Fill in the blank /
Multiple Choice
The ability to use learned knowledge to answer the fill in
the blank questions is a good demonstration of the
knowledge acquired during the class
Essay
Tests
Assessment Form
Weight
100 points
(40%)
Outside Documents: May include job applications, tax
return forms and tables, check stubs, deposit slips
(checking and savings) etc.
100 points
(10%)
Content is graded with the use of rubric identical to the
one used to assess Great Book Essays
100 points
(50%)
Each test will include a very small percentage of multiple
choice questions and the remainder will be fill in the
blank
Exams
Mid-Term / Final
The mid-term and final are similar to the course tests in
that they are fill in the blank with some multiple choice
Also the exams are cumulative; the mid-term will cover
the first semester information and the final will cover the
second semester information
100 points
(20%) of
semester
grade