Travis R. Martin, CPA » PowerPoint

Personal Finance Lesson: Investing in Stocks

travisrmartin — Fri, 07 May 2010 19:34:49 +0000

Learning about stocks is an integral part of any Personal Finance or Economics class. And, regardless of what has

Despite the market's recent downturns stocks remain an important part of any financial portfolio

happened in the market the last few days, stocks are still one of the best tools for building long term wealth.

In this post, I thought I would offer a few of the PowerPoint slides I use to lead classroom discussions on stocks, as well as a few of the worksheets I use. I will post a couple of activities later on.

Since my Personal Finance classes do not have a textbook, and I’m not teaching Econ at the moment, these slides do not correspond to any particular text. I will place them below in the order that I cover them in class. Feel free to adapt them to your own needs!

PowerPoint Discussions over Stocks

PowerPoint Notes: Investing Expectations (Provides students with an overview of what to expect from stock market)
PowerPoint Notes: Introduction to Stocks
PowerPoint Notes: Financial Statements (Basic introduction of Financial Statements for students who haven’t had Accounting)
PowerPoint Notes: Characteristics of High Quality Companies (Students learn traits of high quality companies)
PowerPoint Notes: Other Investments (Introduces Bonds, Mutual Funds, and “other” investments)

Stock Worksheets

Worksheet: Reading Stock Quotes (Excel Format)
Worksheet: Company Financial Statements (Excel Format)
Worksheet: Company Quality (Word Format)

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Personal Finance Lesson: Intro to Bank Accounts

travisrmartin — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:59:10 +0000

Lesson Background

When teaching Personal Finance, I am always excited to get to the “fun” stuff, like investing in stocks. But, before you can get to that point, you have to start with the basics. Like checking and savings accounts.

Some high school aged students are already familiar with bank accounts and their benefits. But, there a lot of people (high school students and adults alike) who avoid banks altogether – instead opting to pay fees to check cashing services every time they want to cash a check. Wal-Mart’s massive rollout of their in store “MoneyCenter” is a good example of the demand for non-traditional banking services.

This lesson guides students through the basics of checking and savings accounts through a PowerPoint discussion that includes the following topics:

How Banks Work
Sample Slide from Banking Basics PowerPoint
Banks vs. Credit Unions
Types of Services Offered by Banks
Differences Between Savings Accounts, CDs, & Money Market Accounts
FDIC Insurance
Checking Accounts

I also include two small activities that get the students out of their seat.

Bank Rate Comparison Activity: Students search the internet for a bank’s website. Then they find the APY for that bank’s various accounts and write the rates and the bank on the board. Class then compares the rates to determine which bank has the best rates.
CNN Money Quiz: There’s a 10 question online quiz on CNN Money that goes along with this topic. I label four spots in the room (A, B, C, & D) then bring up the quiz on the projector. Then I read the questions off one by one and have the students move to the spot for the correct answer.

If you have time, and if your students need the practice, themint.org has a couple of good activities that could be incorporated into this lesson as well.

Themint.org – Writing a check: Walks students through the process of writing a check
Themint.org – Balancing a checkbook: Teaches students how to balance their checkbook

Lesson Resources
PowerPoint Discussion: Checking and Savings Account Basics
Website: CNN Money 101 – Basics of Banking and Saving Quiz
Website: Themint.org – Writing a check
Website: Themint.org – Balancing a checkbook

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Personal Finance Lesson: Miracle of Compounding

travisrmartin — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:41:17 +0000

Lesson Background

Sample Slide from Compounding PowerPoint Presentation

If you have ever been around a high school student, you know they are all about applicability (and you thought they were just all-about Facebook). Meaning that before you tell them anything, you need to convince them how it applies to their life – both now and in the future.

That can be a hard sell if you are teaching, say Biology. Like many students, I dissected animals in high school. Actually, mangled is probably the more accurate term.

15 years later, I can honestly say that knowing what is inside a frog hasn’t helped me much in a practical sense. Kids today are no different. If they feel that what you are talking about doesn’t apply to them, they are likely to tune out.

So, when I introduce my lessons on saving and investing, I guarantee the class that the material will be applicable to each and every one of them.

The lesson I am posting today covers the concepts of simple interest, compound growth, and the Rule of 72. It revolves around a PowerPoint discussion that provides the basics, as well as some eye-opening examples of how the concepts can be applied in real life. It also allows the class the opportunity to practice a few calculations, both manually and using some internet financial calculators (see attached worksheet).

This lesson in compounding lays the foundation for further study. It provides a compelling reason as to “why” we should invest. I will post the lessons and activities that describe “how” to invest later on.

Lesson Resources
PowerPoint Discussion: Magic of Compounding
Student Worksheet: Online Savings Calculators
Website: Millionaire Calculator – Investopedia
Website: Savings Calculator – Dinkytown.net (Need Java to run)
Website: Compounding Interest – Wikipedia

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Personal Finance Lesson: Budgeting 101

travisrmartin — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:41:38 +0000

Lesson Background

Budgeting helps us piece together our financial picture

It’s hard to find the subject of budgeting entertaining. Maybe that’s why so few people actually create and follow a budget.

When I was in college, I had a professor who liked to talk about the Constipated Accountant. As it turns out, the Constipated Accountant couldn’t budge-it, so he got a pencil and worked it out. That’s about the only encounter I’ve ever had with budgeting humor.

Even though it may be a dry subject, I can’t understate the importance of budgeting, especially in the context of teaching students Personal Finance. Today, I’m sharing my lesson on budgeting with this caveat: I know it doesn’t work.

Does it teach students the importance of completing a budget? I think so. Does it show students how to construct a budget? Yes. Does it allow students the opportunity to practice creating their own budget? Sure.

But, does the lesson work in the sense that it will cause every student to go out into the real world, create a budget, and dutifully follow it? Maybe not.

And that is the biggest challenge of Financial Education. We can give students the how’s and the why’s, but getting them to change their existing financial habits and behavior is harder. That being said, the reason I’m a believer in Personal Finance at the high school level, is that we have a better chance of changing poor habits early on, as opposed to trying to change them after they have had 30 years to take root.

Lesson Steps
The budgeting lesson itself consists of a PowerPoint discussion, two activities, and a budgeting project – all of which I will attach below.

I introduce the lesson by posing the following question to the students: imagine you have just been given $100…what will you do with the money?

How the students answer this question provides a glimpse into how they view spending and saving.

Next, I bring up the PowerPoint and we discuss goals. During this portion,

Sample PowerPoint Slide from Budgeting Presentation

students are given the opportunity to jot down some of their own short, mid, and long-term goals as well as their estimated costs.

After the students have written down some of their goals, the discussion continues with a focus on how to use a financial plan (i.e., budget) to achieve goals.

The in-class portion concludes with the students logging onto www.themint.org and completing the “Determining Your Budget” simulation. As the students complete this, most of them find it is hard to create a balanced budget. This provides the perfect opportunity to share with the class the two ways to fix a budget that is out of whack. Namely,

*Make more money (which can be hard to do)
*Spend less money (which can be hard to do, but sometimes more realistic than option 1)

After the lesson, I assign what I have creatively titled “the budgeting project.” Using the attached budget template, I have the students estimate their income and spending for an entire month.

Then, I ask students to keep track of all of their income and spending for a period of time (depending on the group, I may do 2 weeks or 1 month). I normally provide small, pocket sized notebooks for them to record their information.

At the end of the month, the students take the information from their notebook and compare it to their estimated budget. The last step of the project requires students to develop a plan for the following month based on what they learned from their recordkeeping.

Resources
PowerPoint Discussion: Budgeting 101
Worksheet: Excel Budget Template
Link: Themint.org – “Determining Your Budget”
Link: Suggested Reading – “Put Savings (and yourself) First”

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Computer Applications Lesson: My Travel Agent

travisrmartin — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 03:48:02 +0000

Lesson Background

Still Waiting to Find that Illusive Free Hotel Room

After four long months of winter, Spring Break is finally here. To celebrate the occasion, I thought I would share a Spring Break-related classroom activity.

My wife and I usually travel to Clearwater, Florida for Spring Break. The first year we went, we spent hours searching the internet for the perfect hotel along the beach. The end result of all the searching was a run-down room at the Red Roof Inn in Clearwater, which was only perfect in the sense that we could afford to stay there without taking a second mortgage out on our house.

Since the trip to Clearwater from Southern Indiana is 15 hours, we decided to reserve rooms for the drive down and back. Rather than spend another hour of my life on travelocity.com, I enlisted the help of my students – and the activity Mr. Martin’s Travel Agent was born.

The premise is pretty simple: the students research and recommend hotels to me based on a set of criteria I give them. The students then pitch their hotel ideas to me using a PowerPoint presentation. From these presentations, I pick my hotel room. The winning student (or group), gets a “mystery gift bag” from the hotel, which consists of everything I can take from the room and lobby without going to jail (tourist brochures, newspapers, shampoos, soaps, shower caps, pens, paper, etc.).

I’ve done this activity in my Computer Applications classes and in a Travel & Tourism Marketing class. The students seem to enjoy it, but more importantly, I believe it challenges them to exercise their problem solving skills. It also gives them the opportunity to practice selling an idea, as opposed to regurgitating facts from a slide.

Lesson Resources
Instructions: Travel Agent Activity (Word File)

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Personal Finance Lesson: Effective Consumer Complaints

travisrmartin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:11:31 +0000

Lesson Background

Always Check Over Your Bills

We have all been there at some point. You receive a bill in the mail that just isn’t right. Or maybe you purchased a product and were less than satisfied.

Knowing how to handle these situations is part of being a smart consumer. So, in my Personal Finance classes, we cover the process for filing a complaint.

Having just covered cell phone comparison shopping in the previous lesson, I use that as a starting point and play a news clip of a consumer who received a $16,000 cell phone bill (there are plenty of news clips of these types out there…any one will work).

The video clip leads into a discussion in which the class provides personal examples of instances in which they (or a family member) had to have an issue resolved.

I then go through a short PowerPoint presentation in which I cover the complaint process as well as the mechanics of writing an effective complaint letter.

The lesson concludes with the students writing their own complaint letter, following a sample letter included in the US Consumer Action Handbook. Rather than having the students completely make up a letter, I have them randomly draw from a group of scenarios I have written up. An example being:

You recently received your monthly Cable Bill from Time Warner Cable (Account #8914651). Normally your bill consists of charges for Basic Cable and Internet, with a total of $89.99. However, this month HBO and Cinemax appear to have been added to your bill. You did not order these stations, and do not want them, but because they are on your bill, it is now $14.99 higher.

I intentionally leave a few items off of the scenario. First of all, I leave off the company’s address, so the student can practice going online and looking up an appropriate customer service address.

Also, there is no mention of how the problem should be resolved in the scenario. It is up to the student to decide what to request.

Some may say letter writing is an outdated mode of communication, and I agree. However, this activity helps students understand the basic information they would need to communicate in a consumer complaint. That knowledge can be applied to complaints sent via e-mail, telephone, or in person.

Lesson Resources
Website: www.consumeraction.gov (Government Consumer Education Website)
Video Clip: The $16,000 Cell Phone Bill
PowerPoint Presentation: Consumer Complaints
Resource: Scenarios for Student Complaint Letters
Resource: Complaint Letter Template (from Consumer Action Handbook)

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Economics Lesson: Fun with Economic Systems & Goals

travisrmartin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:56:44 +0000

Lesson Background

Flip to the front of nearly any high school Economics textbook and you are sure to find a discussion of Economic Systems and Economic Goals.

When my classes discuss these topics (see PowerPoint notes), I like to incorporate a few simple activities.

Cover of Student Economic Systems Brochure

The first activity covers Economic Systems. After the students have read and discussed the topic in class, I have them create an advertisement (flyer, brochure, commercial, or video) highlighting the main tenants of an Economic System of their choice.

As a wrap-up, I like to have the students read an excerpt from Ayn Rand’s Anthem, to help them visualize what it might be like to have a job assigned to them in a Command Economy.

The second activity uses music to show how people can become frustrated when Economic Goals are not met. During the classroom discussion of Economic Goals, I highlight a song in which the artist is dissatisfied with an Economic issue (think John Mellencamp’s ‘Scarecrow’ , Bob Dylan’s ‘Union Sundown’, or any number of songs, really).

Afterwards, the students are charged with the task of finding their own song and writing a short (less than one page) summary of how it addresses failed Economic Goals. Assuming you have access to the CDs/MP3, these songs can then be played for the class, as time allows.

Lesson Resources
PowerPoint Discussion: Economic Systems & Goals
Instructions: Economics Systems & Goals Activites
Reading: Excerpt from “Anthem” by Ayn Rand

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Marketing Lesson: Target Market People Activity

travisrmartin — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 02:34:05 +0000

Sample Target Market People

Lesson Description

If your students have ever seen a commercial or made a purchase, they have already seen target markets in action.

The concept itself is not hard to understand, but it is nonetheless one of the most important concepts in marketing. The better a company is at identifying their potential customers; the more successful they will be in delivering products and services that are in demand.

In this activity, students get hands-on with target markets by creating a fictional person that is representative of a given target market.

The activity begins with a PowerPoint discussion of how target markets are used to identify the needs of specific groups of consumers and how this information is used to develop/market products.

Students are then shown a document listing sample market segmentations.

The students use this information to identify a target market (single male, ages 18 – 24, income < $25,000 for example).

Once the students have identified a target market, they cut the form of a person out of a large sheet of art paper and decorate it using photos of products that are marketed to that particular group.

After each group has created their “Target Market” person (I usually allot 45 minutes to 1 hour for this portion), they are presented to the class. Often times, the presentations lead to a discussion of how and where the products depicted on the Target Market person are advertised, as well as which target markets are most attractive (from a business sense).

Not only is this activity a good, cheap way to introduce students to target markets, it also provides your classroom with some conversation-starting decorations. After taping this year’s crop to my walls, I had a number of students from other classes ask about them…so, in a way, the target market people are marketing my marketing classes for me!

Lesson Resources
PowerPoint Notes: Target Markets
Instructions: Target Market Person
Resource: Market Segment Listings

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