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Personal Finance Curriculum Alexa Benudiz, Ella Blott, Jaime McCook, Francis Nah, Erin Stewart
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Table of contents 1. Background2. Research Objectives3. Methodology4. Findings5. Implications6. Recommendations
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Background
● As Boston University students prepare for their lives after graduation, making decisions on financial matters becomes real.
● Students recognize the importance and the need to learn how to make informed financial decisions.
● Personal finance course is currently not offered at BU.
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Research objectives
To create a 14-week personal finance course curriculum for Boston University undergraduate students
Main objective
Sub-objectives
1. Which financial topics interest them?
2. Which topics do they think are necessary?
3. Why are these topics relevant?
Design Thinking Session
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Methodology
In-depth Interviews
Type In-depth interviews
Sample size 23 students and 2 professors
Date October 21 - November 3
Type Design Thinking Session
Sample size 5 students
Date Thursday, October 29
Findings
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Summary of the Findings
1. Students know that learning about personal finance is important, but they don’t know as much information as they feel they should.
2. Students want to learn about the practical applications of personal finance, rather than concepts and theories.
3. Students rely on their parents for personal finance information and answers.
4. Students aren’t as concerned with personal finance topics that don’t affect them in the near future (i.e. retirement).
How Students Define Personal Finance
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● Design Thinking Session:○ Chose images that represent personal finance ○ Common financial terminology (401 K, CD)
● Interviews:○ Not exactly sure what it means or entails○ Avoid thinking about future finances○ How to make money in the future○ Something important to learn about
“One thing you can get into is the psychology of money. What does money mean to people? Because everybody learns about money in a different way. Most people learn about money from their parents - that can be good or bad. Some parents have wonderful spending and investment habits, while others are just consumers. In many cases, you learn - good or bad - from the people you live with” - Professor Jeff Allen
How Students Define Personal Finance
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Interviewees: Olivia Sindall, Mandy Fraden
Design Thinking Session: Eva Mayo, Alissa Mangy, Molly Driscoll, Emma Riley, Clare Roach
Student Loans
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● Interviews:○ Students are concerned about paying
their loans○ More concerned with their debt rather
than their savings
● Design Thinking Session:○ Paying off student loans
Olivia Sindall, CFA ‘16, Tamarah Brousseau, CAS ‘16, Mandy Fraden, CAS ‘16
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● Design Thinking Session:○ Participants spoke about wanting to learn about how to save○ Difference between savings and checkings accounts
● Interviews:○ Have multiple bank accounts but not sure why○ Use different banks in college and in home town○ Not sure about interest ○ When to use a checkings account versus a savings account○ Would like to know the difference between different types of bank
accounts: credit unions, general banks, investment banks
Bank Account Types
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Saving and Budgeting
● Design Thinking Session:○ Not sure how to start saving for long term○ Don’t know how much to save and when
to plan for expensive purchases
● Interviews:
○ “I have an app on my iPhone called "spending tracker" where I log all my expenses every month. It's great because it lets me see how much money I spend on clothes, groceries, food, books, etc.” - Candice Shadgoo, SAR ‘17
○ “Making sure students are looking at their long-term goals is important. The decisions they are making now, in terms of what they are spending and what they are saving, is going to continue having an influence on their finances 10, 20, 30 years down the line” - Professor Aaron Stevens
“An exercise I find helpful for students is having them make up a budget. If you give them an imaginary salary of $60,000 for a year. Then let’s talk about how that money gets spent. You have federal taxes, state taxes, social security taxes. You’ve got your healthcare insurance, any retirement money you’re going to put away. You’ve got your usual expenses of rent, food, clothing. And then you have money that you’re going to want to put away, and save for later on. An exercise like that will show students how quickly their money disappears if they want to live alone in a big apartment in a big city, and where they’re going to need to compromise to balance their budget.” - Professor Jeff Allen
Importance of Credit
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● Design Thinking Session:
● Interview:
○ “I never pay for anything with my credit card that I know for I fact I won’t be able to pay back. I only have one credit card and am planning on keeping it that way.” - Frida Clark CAS ‘17
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● Interviews:
○ “To an extent, I know where my taxes go. On a state level, I believe most taxes go towards infrastructure replacement, paying local congresspeople, and the public school education system. On a federal level, I believe that most taxes go towards bigger entities like the army.” - Natalie Jamnik, CAS ‘17
○ “One of the things that I think I know about, but actually don’t fully understand, is tax brackets. A basic rundown of the current tax brackets and where I might fall into them is really important” - Sheridan Aspinwall, SAR ‘17
Taxes
● Design Thinking Session
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● Interviews:
○ “I don't know to invest and I know little about the stock market, but I know the grand scheme of things. You put a little money in for a share of a company, and whether the company does well or not, the price of your share will either increase or decrease.” - Natalie Jamnik, CAS ‘17
○ “One of the things to start with is how do you go about buying individual stocks? And then, beyond that, speaking about how do you purchase mutual funds.” - Professor Jeff Allen
Investing
● Design Thinking Session
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Insurance
● Interviews:
○ “I feel like I’d want to know about insurance. I needed renters insurance for my apartment when I moved in. I think it would be good to know these things.” - Olivia Sindall, CFA ‘16
○ “Something you definitely want to talk about is insurance. Home insurance, car insurance, renter’s insurance...Students also tend not to think about this now, but down the line, something to definitely look at is life insurance, and the different options offered there.” - Professor Aaron Stevens
○ “I haven’t really thought about insurance outside of what my parents use. I just assumed that I would continue to use the same insurance as them. I’ve never really looked at options beyond that.” - Brandy Bautista, CAS ‘17
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Job Benefits
● Interviews:
○ “You also, with students, need to talk about leaving college with a job and going on to work in professional life. So, one of the things to speak about also is retirement programs that a company might have in place, so students know what to look for as they enter the workforce” - Professor Jeff Allen
○ “I would look into signing up for 401k plans, I would also consider this when looking for jobs. I would want to work at a company where they match your retirement investments when it is directly pulled from your paycheck.” - Maria Sa, CAS 17’
● Design Thinking Session:
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Mortgage and Other Loans
● Interview ○ “I’m starting to think about other big
purchases I might have to make now. I might need a car for work when I graduate and I’m not sure how to get a loan for it or any of that stuff.” - Jessica Carlson, Questrom ‘16
● Design Thinking Session
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Shared Finances
● Interview
○ “I do know how to finance for large purchases in general. Although I do have the credit score for them, my income is not high enough for these purchases to be relevant.” - Frida Clark, CAS ‘17
Brianna Randolph, CAS ‘17
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Retirement
● Design Thinking Session● Interviews:
○ “It is important but it is not my immediate focus. I’m not thinking about retirement, I still have a few more years until I have to worry about that. The only thing I'll be thinking about after graduation is finding a job. Then, after I get a job I'll worry about saving up.” - Candice Shadgoo, SAR ‘17
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● Interviews:
○ “As a non-business major, I would be motivated by the fact that knowing how to spend and save your money appropriately is a vital aspect for everyone’s life.” - Riley Allen, CAS ‘16
○ “As a physical therapy student at Boston University, I eventually aspire to open my own private physical therapy clinic. I would be very interested in taking finance courses so I can learn how to manage not only my own money, but also my own private practice.” - Candice Shadgoo, SAR ‘17
Would You Take a Personal Finance Class at BU?
Olivia Sindall, CFA ‘16, Tamarah Brousseau, CAS ‘16
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Mixed Feedback on a Potential Fidelity-Sponsored Class
● Design Thinking Session:○ Taking a Fidelity-sponsored class would make it more credible○ Might be less likely to take the class if it was sponsored because it might be biased
● Interviews:○ Would need to be confident in the lecturer’s knowledge in order to take the class○ Doesn’t care about gaining a certificate from the course
● Professor Perspective: ○ “So there’s good and bad in there. The good is that students get a chance to learn more
about personal finance, from fairly experienced people. The bad news is, if Fidelity is doing the presentation, they’re going to talk about mostly Fidelity products...I think it’s a good idea, but I think the university’s got to be careful with the person doing it. I think the positives outweigh the negatives, because knowledge itself is useful.” - Professor Jeff Allen
Implications
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Implications
● Curriculum should be based on categories that design thinking session created and the most common topics that came up in interviews:
○ What is personal finance? ○ Student Loans○ Different Types of Bank Accounts ○ Saving and Budgeting○ Credit and Credit Cards○ Taxes○ Investing○ Insurance○ Job Benefits ○ Mortgage○ Financial Implications of Marriage ○ Retirement
● The topics above should be taught by order of relevance to students’ immediate future ● Students are weary of taking a for-credit class sponsored by a company● Students aren’t generally thinking about personal finance until they are asked about it
Recommendations:Proposed curriculum
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Proposed Curriculum and Rationale
Students need to have an understanding of general financial concepts before they can apply them to their own lives.
Week 1: Introduction to Personal Finance
Week 2: Student Loans
Week 3: Guest speaker: BU Financial Aid
Week 4: Bank Accounts - checking, saving, interest, etc.
Students are most concerned about education loans, and learning more about them.
Students have a lot of questions specific to their finances as they relate to BU. A BU financial aid employee would be able offer the most relevant insight.
Students would like to know the benefits and drawbacks of different banking options, and how to choose the best account options for them.
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Proposed Curriculum and Rationale
Students want to know how to save and manage their money more effectively and create a working budget.
Week 5: Saving/budgeting
Week 6: Credit
Week 7: Taxes
Week 8: Investing
Students are aware of the importance of maintaining good credit, but are often unaware of how to build credit and avoid credit card debt.
Students want to know how to file their taxes, what their tax money is going towards, and how tax brackets work.
Students are not aware of all of their investment options, and how the stock market affects the economy.
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Proposed Curriculum and Rationale
Students are aware of insurance options, but they are uninformed about what these options specifically entail.
Week 9: Insurance - medical, life, property/renter, car
Week 10: Job benefits: what to expect from your contract?
Week 11: Mortgage and other loans
Week 12: Shared finances
Students are unaware of the benefits that can be provided by employers, and which of these to look for when applying for jobs.
Students recognize that mortgages and other large financial loans are significant, but they regard them as irrelevant, far-off concepts.
Students have questions about sharing costs with roommates and significant others. Additionally, this class would cover the financial effects of marriage and divorce.
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Proposed Curriculum and Rationale
Students understand why retirement is important, but they neither understand their options, nor when to start planning for retirement.
Week 13: Retirement
Week 14: Field trip to FidelityTo wrap up the personal finance course, an experiential learning trip to a Fidelity Investor Center would introduce students to all that it has to offer and answer any final questions. Fidelity will most likely be the top-of-mind brand when it comes to choosing an investment company.
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Additional Suggestions
● Creating a credit optional class○ Some students would be more willing to take the class if it was a pass/fail, or if credit was
optional
● Personal finance seminars ○ Gives students more flexibility than a regular class and requires less commitment○ Wouldn’t need class to be run by a specific department?
● Make students aware of the resources that already exist online ○ Video tutorials○ Fidelity Online Learning Center
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Online Education
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Alexa BenudizElla BlottJaime-Leigh McCookFrancis NahErin Stewart
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Design Thinking Session ● Find a picture online that represents what you think of personal finance (keep record
of pictures- have them send it to us, explain rationale)● Write down 10 topics related to personal finance on post-its - questions you have,
things you are unsure about, topics you would like to be covered in in a class● Put post-its down on table● Have people group post-its into key categories● Participants explain their categories● Ask participants what they would think of taking a class sponsored by Fidelity● Ask students whether they would take this class - what might make them more
inclined to take the class?
Appendix - Discussion Guidelines
Interview Questions 1. What knowledge do you have of personal finance?
a. What sources of information do you reach out to in order to get this knowledge?
2. Do you follow a personal budget? Track your spending habits?a. What resources do you use to do so?
3. Do you have student loans (or others)? Do you have a payment plan? Are you concerned about paying them off?
4. Are you financially independent from your parents? To what degree?5. Do you understand the importance of good credit? Do you have a credit
card?a. Are you aware of what sort of activities will raise or lower your
credit score?b. Do you have a checkings or savings account?c. Are you aware of what interest each account gains
6. Do you know how to file your taxes? Do you file your own taxes? a. Do you know what your taxes go towards? State & Federal
7. Do you know how to invest? Do you understand how the stock market works?
8. Will you start thinking about retirement when you graduate? How important is long term savings to you at this point?
9. Do you know how to finance large purchases such as a house or a car? How would you get loans for these purchase?
10. What would motivate you to take a class about personal finance as a non-business major?
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Appendix - Names and email addresses of the interviewees
1. Bronwen Ambridge ([email protected])2. Eva Mayo ([email protected])3. Tamarah Brousseau ([email protected])4. Mandy Fraden ([email protected])5. Olivia Sindall ([email protected])6. Jessica Carlson ([email protected]) 7. Brianna Randolph ([email protected]) 8. Sheridan Aspinwall ([email protected]) 9. Molly Driscoll ([email protected])
10. Olivia Blott ([email protected])11. Brandy Bautista ([email protected]) 12. Professor Aaron Stevens ([email protected]) 13. Professor Jeff Allen ([email protected]) 14. Alissa Mangy ([email protected])15. Negin Taleb ([email protected])16. Candice Shadgoo ([email protected])17. Natalie Jamnik ([email protected])
18. Riley Allen ([email protected]) 19. Chase Guthrie ([email protected]) 20. Nicole Prescott ([email protected])21. Maria Sa ([email protected])22. Julia Price ([email protected])23. Frida Clark ([email protected])24. Ines Horneij ([email protected]) 25. Emma Riley ([email protected])26. Krystian Zawodniak ([email protected]) 27. Konrad Herath ([email protected]) 28. James M. Park ([email protected]) 29. Jiho Shin ([email protected]) 30. Clare Roach ([email protected])
