Business and Personal Finance

Semester Portfolio

Part 1 / Module 1

This booklet provides instructions for completing the required exercises

for the Business and Personal Finance Semester Portfolio.

After the completion of each module, you will complete and submit the

required exercises found in this booklet; exercises intended to improve

your budgeting, organization, researching, and note-taking skills!

Each module will have its own booklet with module-specific infor-

mation and instructions. Be sure to read each book-

let in its entirety to maximize your points earned.

READ ME FIRST

Portfolio Exercise #1: Budgeting In Module 1, you learned about budgets and how they can be used to track your finances. Through the track-

ing of your finances, you can come to understand the biggest drains on your income and based on your new

understanding you can adjust your financial outlook by, say, increasing your income or modifying your spend-

ing.

You will now create a budget. You will need to do some research about the information to be included in the

budget. At the end of each module, you will add to the budget based on the information presented in that

module. By the end of the course, you should not only have a functioning, working budget; but, you should

also have an increased understanding of budgeting that you will use in the future to manage your finances..

Module 1 Budgeting Exercise

In Module 1, you researched two careers that interested you. In doing so, you learned about each career's

salary and any educational or training requirements associated with the salary. In addition, you learned

about methods for paying for post-high school education and training; to include: scholarships, grants, and

student loans. All of this information will come in handy as you complete the Module 1 Budgeting Exercise.

To complete the Module 1 Budgeting Exercise, follow the instructions below:

1. Open and review the Monthly Budget Excel spreadsheet.

- Ensure you review the information listed on both spreadsheet tabs.

Personal Monthly Budget tab:

Entry Level Income - cell C7

- Your monthly “Entry-Level” income, based on your selected career, without taxes or deductions.

NOTE: If your entry-level income is more than $40,000, you must cite your source in the Budget Notes-

Explanation tab.

Projected Student Loans - cell F24 (optional)

- Seriously consider how you will pay for career readiness education and/or training; will you need to

take out student loans? If so, how much? Use Bankrate’s Student Loan Calculator to determine your

monthly payment if using student loans. Ensure the value listed represents your monthly payment.

Budget Notes-Explanations tab:

Income and Loan Information - Include info that explains the values listed in the monthly budget.

- Income Information Explanation should include: job title, education and/or training requirements, and

salary. Include the URL for where you found all your information.

- Student Loan Information Explanation (if you listed a projected student loan value) should include:

loan amount, loan type (Perkns and/or Stafford), and estimated monthly payment.

4. Save your changes - naming the Excel file as: budget_M1_FLast.xls

- Replace FLast with your first initial of your first name and your full last name (ex: jdoe).

2. Select one career from the two careers you researched in the module.

3. Based on your research, complete the following elements listed in the budget:

Portfolio Exercise #2: Storing/Organizing In Module 1, you learned that organizing your financial records is an important task - a task that will help you

be better informed about your financial outlook. Financial records come in a variety of formats—from physi-

cal, hard-copy documents to digital, computer-based documents—and can be stored in a variety of ways.

You will now create a storage/organization structure that is meant to house basic

financial records that most people have. At the end of each module, you will be

given a list of financial records to organize. The financial records will correlate to

the information presented in the module. By the end of the course, you will have

a model of a functional storage/organizational structure.

Module 1 Storing/Organizing Exercise

Module 1 introduced you to a variety of concepts; to include: budgeting, financial

aid (scholarships, grants, student loans, and work study), and career considera-

tions. Additionally, you learned about methods for storing and organizing your

financial documents. In Module 1. Use your newly acquired information to com-

plete the Module 1 Storing/Organizing Exercise.

To complete the Module 1 Storing/Organizing Exercise, follow the instructions below:

1. Consider the following financial records (note some records listed may not necessarily be financial rec-

ords, but they are still important records that you should store for the future):

2. In a PowerPoint document, create a multimedia presentation that visually presents the storage/

organization structure for the financial records listed below and answer the following guiding questions:

- See the following Organization Structure exemplar for guidance: Organization Structure - Visual

Financial Records

Guiding Questions

3. Save your changes - naming your file as: storage_structure_M1_FLast.ppt

- Replace FLast with your first initial of your first name and your full last name (ex: jdoe).

High School Diploma - physical document

College or Vocational School Acceptance Letter -

physical document

Financial Aid Award Letter - physical document

Student Loan Contract - digital document

College Transcripts - digital document

College or Vocational School - physical document

Employment Offer Letter - digital document

Employment Contract - digital document

Will you store your physical and digital documents separately or together? Explain/demonstrate.

Where will you store your financial records? If storing physical and digital documents separately, ex-

plain/demonstrate visually exactly where each will be stored (i.e. filing cabinet, external hard drive,

safety deposit box, cloud, etc.)

What type of folder structure will you create? If storing physical and digital documents separately, ex-

plain/demonstrate the folder structure to be used for both types of financial records.

Portfolio Exercise #3: Annotated Bibliography In Module 1, you began researching career information. In the pro-

cess you probably visited a variety of websites - gathering infor-

mation about careers that interested you. Now, think of another

time when you began researching a topic...you probably began with

an Internet search - reviewing a handful of articles about your topic;

some of which were relevant and some of which were not. Question:

while researching have you ever found a useful source only to close

the page without noting the source URL - making “re”-finding the

information difficult?

A common tactic when researching a topic is to first create an annotated bibliography. When you create an

annotated bibliography, you create a digital record of a variety of research sources that you may or may not

use in your final research project. In addition, annotated bibliographies include a source synopsis and a criti-

cal evaluation of the source which highlights a source’s perceived usefulness to your research project.

You will now create an annotated bibliography using the sources presented in the module. Each module, you

will add source records to your annotated bibliography. By the end of the course you will have a Business and

Personal Finances annotated bibliography that you can use for future financial research tasks.

Module 1 Annotated Bibliography

Module 1 presented a variety of resources designed to supplement the topics presented. You will select two

of these resources and create source records for each.

To complete the Module 1 Annotated Bibliography Exercise, follow the instructions below:

1. Briefly review the resources provided in Module 1 (links listed below):

2. Select two resources that you feel contain highly valuable information.

3. In a Word document, create a source record for each resource. Each source record must include:

- The title of the article or website.

- The full URL of the article or website.

- A one paragraph synopsis that highlights the information presented in the article or website.

- An evaluation of the source’s perceived usefulness.

4. Save your changes - naming the Word file as: annotated_bibliography_M1_FLast.doc

- Replace FLast with your first initial of your first name and your full last name (ex: jdoe).

What Are Your Values? - Section A Federal Student Aid - Section B

How to Organize Your Financial Paperwork - Section A Bureau of Labor Statistics - Section B

Jump$tart’s Reality Check - Section B Fastweb - Section B

Occupational Outlook Handbook - Section B U.S. Department of Education - Section B

Personal Monthly Budget tab:

Projected Gross Income - cell C7

- Your monthly income without taxes or deductions

Projected Student Loans - cell F22

- Seriously consider how you will pay for career readiness education and/or training; will you be

awarded scholarships and grants? Will those take care of all your educational and/or training

expenses? Will you need to take out student loans? If so, how much?

Budget Notes-Explanations tab:

Career Information

- Include information that explains the values listed in the monthly budget; to include: job title,

education and/or training requirements, and salary. Include the URL for where you found the

information.

Portfolio Exercise #4: Note Taking In Module 1, you were presented with supplemental information by way of videos, pamphlets, or brochures.

These supplemental materials are meant to provide you with additional information about topics being pre-

sented in the module; they act as an extension of the instruction taking place in the course.

To maximize your comprehension of Business and Personal Finance it is important that you review the sup-

plemental materials presented in each module. To truly grasp the information presented, it is beneficial to

take notes.

You will now access the supplemental materials of the course and take notes about the information present-

ed. You may use any style of note taking you choose (outline, Cornell, mapping, etc.), but remember the in-

formation is only as valuable as you make it. Extend your understanding of the information by asking ques-

tions, making connections to other topics, comparing the information presented to your own schema (your

personal thought process), etc.

Module 1 Note Taking Exercise

Module 1 presented a variety of supplemental materials designed to extend your understanding of the topics

presented. You will access these supplemental materials and take notes as instructed below.

To complete the Module 1 Note Taking Exercise, follow the instructions below:

1. Review the supplemental materials provided in Module 1 (links listed below):

Occupational Quarterly Outlook - Section B InDemand - Energy - Section B

InDemand - Advanced Manufacturing - Section B InDemand - Health Care - Section B

InDemand - Construction - Section B InDemand - STEM - Section B

2. In a Word document, take a full page of notes. Your notes must adhere to

the following guidelines:

- Header included that lists the name of each supplemental material refer-

enced in the notes.

- Text font must be a normal, readable font (e.g. Times New Roman, Arial,

Calibri, Verdana, etc.).

- Text size must be 14pt or smaller.

- Margins should be set to no larger than one inch on all sides.

- Formatting tools (bold, highlight, underline, italics, etc.) should be used

to provide emphasis for important information.

3. Save your changes - naming the Word file as: note_taking_M1_FLast.doc

- Replace FLast with your first initial of your first name and your full last

name (ex: jdoe).

Submitting Your Semester Portfolio Congratulations! You have completed all of the exercises required for the Business and Personal Finance Se-

mester Portfolio - Part 1.

To submit your Business and Personal Finance Semester Portfolio Exercise elements, follow the instructions

below:

1. Access the M1SP—Semester Portfolio: Part 1 assignment submission area (located in the Module 1 fold-

er).

2. Review the rubric listed in the assignment submission area to ensure you have met the requirements of

each element criteria.

3. Attach the following files to the assignment submission area:

budget_M1_FLast.xls

storage_structure_M1_FLast.ppt

annotated_bibliography_M1_FLast.doc

note_taking_M1_FLast.doc

4. Add any clarifying text to the submission text window.

5. Click Submit.

Image Credits Page 1

kentoh, Business Finance, 183088841, Thinkstock

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Page 2 & 3

Violka08, Budget concept, 495853751, iStock/Thinkstock

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Olegk1986, Books and apple on laptop screen, 476181096,

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Chunumunu, Young Guy Working on Laptop, 177581930,

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pepj, completed stamp, 187179219, Thinstock