Setting Personal and Financial Goals

 

A lesson designed to get students thinking about personal and financial goals

I like to start the first week of school with a lesson I designed to get students thinking about their personal and financial goals – “Wonderful Life”.  

This fun, interactive project gives students a chance to get to know each other while creating a presentation that reveals their goals regarding career, wages, and lifestyle.  It also sharpens their communication and presentation skills. As a culminating activity, each student presents their project to the class. It is a great first lesson.

Over 600 teachers have download this FREE lesson from Teachers Pay Teachers since January 1, 2013.  If you have not already grabbed it, here is the link... “Wonderful Life”.

Teaching “Wonderful Life”

Now that so many teachers are using this lesson, I thought I would offer a few tips on how I teach “Wonderful Life.”

I like starting the class off with this assignment because it eases the students (and the teacher) into the class, and it is a fun way for everyone to get to know each other.  It gives the teacher a chance to spend some one-on-one time with students.  It also sets the stage for the rest of the course.

Teacher tips

When I begin this lesson I always show students a completed presentation.  My thinking is that students will create something as good or better than the sample I show them.

I review the features of the presentation software students will be using - if needed. 

I stress that students should give plenty of details on each of the topics included the presentation.

Topic: Describe your dream home

Example: My dream home is a log cabin located on a beautiful, blue lake high in the mountains.  Secretly it would be very a high-tech house---but have a rustic look.     

I also spend some time talking about page layout – organizing and designing easy to read headings, subheadings, and text, as well as graphics that drive your point home.  I talk about trapped white space and how to avoid it. I usually steer students away from using clip art - pictures just seem more sophisticated.

I tell students that they will be presenting their project and that it would be to their advantage not to use animations like flash or crawl.  These types of animations are really distracting.  “Crawl” loses the class because it takes too long and “flash” just confuses everyone including the teacher who is attempting to grade the presentation.

Timing

It takes about a week for students to complete this assignment and an additional three days for student presentations. This is my experience with a class of about 32 students.

Every class is different, as is every student. Some will take a little more time to complete the lesson and others will take less time. I ask students who finish early to spend time editing their presentation and adding sound and animation. This gives the rest of the class time to finish up.

 

Next Week...more on presentation setup for “Wonderful Life”.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Net Worth Update (August 2013)

Current Net Worth
Assets	Jul-13	Aug-13	Change	% change
Savings Account 1	$2,759.47	$2,706.00	($53.47)	-1.94
Savings Account 2	$3,223.53	$5,116.49	$1,892.96	58.72
Savings Account 3	$25,093.43	$26,325.95	$1,232.52	4.91
Investment Linked Fund	$8,922.62	$8,128.83	($793.79)	-8.90
Schroders Commodity Fund	$9,334.73	$9,722.21	$387.48	4.15
Stock Holdings	$9,680.00	$8,760.00	($920.00)	-9.50
Phillip Money Market Fund	$15,037.05	$15,042.25	$5.20	0.03
Physical cash	$1,000.00	$1,000.00	$0.00	0.00
Market Value Of BTO Flat (to be built in 2016/2017)	$750,000.00	$750,000.00	$0.00
Total Assets	$825,050.83	$826,801.73	$1,750.90	0.21
Liabilities
Home Loan	$617,500	$617,500	$0.00	0.00
Net Worth (including flat to be built in 2016/2017)	$207,550.83	$209,301.73	$1,750.90	0.84
Investible Net Worth	$75,050.83	$76,801.73	$1,750.90	2.33

• Cash/Cash equivalents increased by $3,077 in August. Total accumulated cash/cash equivalents is now $50,000. However, the drop in the value of my investment assets offset the increase in cash, resulting in a 2.3% increase in overall investible net worth.
• Value of stock holdings and mutual funds decreased about 9-10% due to lacklustre economic data and the fear of a reduction in quantitative easing in the US.
• First big hurdle for the markets in September will be the August employment report, which could dictate Fed's decision on the reduction of quantitative easing, which is speculated to happen in September.
• Commodity fund rose 4% in August due to the conflict in Syria, coupled with the attack on a key pipeline in Iraq that reduced the country's oil exports by 290,000 a day. In addition, protests in Libya and disruptions on key pipelines in Nigeria contributed to the reduced global oil output.

Personal Finance Strategies for 2013

Well, the beginning of the school year is just around the corner. I've been thinking about what to blog about this school year, and I decided that it might be especially helpful to new teachers if they had a model to follow - at least starting out.  So this year I will add some teaching strategies to what I am already doing on my blog.

At first glance teaching Personal Finance may seem like it would be a hard class to teach and a little dry, and a little boring for the students. I find this is NOT the case at all. I have taught many different classes and Personal Finance is undeniably the most exciting and rewarding of them all.

My philosophy, when it comes to Personal Finance, is that students have more fun and the lesson sticks better if they discover the answers for themselves. For example, instead of lecturing the students about money and telling them that they need to learn to budget, I designed a budgeting game that the class plays during the trimester. Long before the end of the class students start asking questions like "Why isn't there ever enough money to go around in this game?" My usual reply is that they have discovered the meaning of the game. Often in life many of us live paycheck to paycheck, and sometimes that does not cover all of the bills. And of course, from there the conversation turns to budgeting - so now we are at a point where students are open to discussing budgeting, and they have their own unique ideas to offer on the subject.

With that said, my next blog will be on how I start the first week of school.

See you then. Thanks for stopping by!

 

Personal Finance (14): A Multiple-Time-Frame BBC Indicators on STI



Attached shows the Multiple-Time-Frame BBC indicator on Straits Time Index, with the FTSE industries grouping of Singapore Market as components.

 

This is the time as Monthly Wave, Weekly Wave, and Daily Wave (Click on the chart to zoom in) are in sync.  and therefore make this post as social service.

 

The description for all indicators were published in previous entry.

 

Monthly Wave

 

 

 

Weekly Wave

 

Daily Wave

 

Run when you should run, stay when you should stay.

 

 

 
 
(Link of the BBC Indicator)

 

Back to School Days Sale

 
The start of the school year is one of the most exciting and energizing times of the year and it is getting close. In fact, some schools are already in full swing.  To celebrate the beginning of another school year Teachers Pay Teachers and Personal Finance for Teens Unleashed are teaming up for a huge Back to School Sale August 18th and 19th. 
 
So...It's Time to Stock Up!
 
This is a great time for you to take a look at your wish list and fill your cart.  These big sales don't come along often. 
 
Don't forget to use the PROMO CODE to get your full discount:  BTS13

 

Bad News: Yikes, Our Depressed Stock Market Fell Even Lower!

Bad News: Yikes, Our Depressed Stock Market Fell Even Lower! 

Bad news, right? This “bad news” is actually SWEET MUSIC to the ears of long-term investors like myself and my TrulyRichClub Members. 

Why sweet? Because a depressed Stock Market is similar to a mall-wide “midnight sale” where all the fantastic Stocks are selling at insane cheap prices. If you’re still thinking of getting into the Stock Market, now is the time to jump in. 

But before I tell you why I believe this is the best time to invest, let me reintroduce myself to some people who may not know me…  

My Maid Has P541,271 

I’m the crazy guy who taught my maids to invest in the Stock Market. (I was the one who wrote the bestselling book, My Maid Invests In the Stock Market And Why You Should Too.) Today, one of my maids has P333,289 in her Stock Market investments. My other maid—the one who I promoted as my bookkeeper two years ago—has now P541,271.  

NOTE: Before the Stock Market crashed a few months ago, she already had P600T+. So she should be very sad, right? Nope, she’s not. She’s fully indoctrinated with our long-term investment strategy at the TrulyRichClub. She knows this “paper loss” is very temporary.  

They Will Retire Multimillionaires 

This morning, I just told her, “If you keep this up, you’ll reach your first million in 4 years.” Boy, I’m waiting for that day. So I can tell everyone with pride, “My maid is a millionaire!” Confession: I’ve brainwashed my maids. I’ve also brainwashed my 100+ employees working in my businesses and ministries—because almost all of them are invested in the Stock Market. Janitors. Clerks. Messengers. Managers. They will all retire multimillionaires. Very cool. 

I’ve taught them to think the way I think. Even when the Stock Market is crashing around them, and it seems that the value of their investments are going down, they’re happy. 

Let me explain…  

Why You Should Be Happy When There’s a Crisis 

The US and Europe’s economies are picking up. So foreign funds sold their shares here in the Philippines and transferred their money back to the US and Europe. 

So the Philippine Stock Market went down. Note: There’s nothing wrong with our country’s giant corporations. They’re earning well and will earn even more this year and next year. 

But because of what’s happening in the US and Europe, our Stock Market is being pulled down. 

But this downward and sideways movement in the Philippine Stock Market will not last. Soon, it’ll rise up again. So while it’s cheap, long-term investors are buying Stocks every month. To my maids, this is good news. And to my thousands of TrulyRichClub Members, this is good news. 

Why? Because for the next few months, we’ll all be buying great companies at cheap, discounted prices. By the way, I don’t try to guess where the “bottom” is. Because I teach people to buy monthly small amounts of shares, it doesn’t matter. We just keep buying at discounted prices.  

This Is The Best Time To Start Investing! 

Don’t wait. There’s never been a better time to start investing than during a depressed market like this. I can hear your doubts. “But Bo, I don’t know anything about the Stock Market.” That’s okay. I can help you. 

Join my TrulyRichClub, and I’ll give you a step-by-step procedure on how to invest in the Stock Market. I’ll teach you how to open an online brokers account. And I’ll also send you my Stocks Update, telling you what Stocks I buy and sell.

Get guidance. Join my TrulyRichClub. 

To join, log on at www.TrulyRichClub.com now!

May your dreams come true, 

Bo Sanchez 

PS. Don’t Miss This Window Of Opportunity When The Stocks Are Low. To know more about the TrulyRichClub, click the link below:

Yes Bo, teach me how to grow my money!  

Tell me more about the TrulyRichClub

Net Worth Update (July 2013)

Current Net Worth
Assets	Jun-13	Jul-13	Change	% change
Savings Account 1	$2,419.38	$2,759.27	$340.09	14.06
Savings Account 2	$2,902.53	$3,223.53	$321.00	11.06
Savings Account 3	$22,780.16	$25,093.43	$2,313.27	10.15
Investment Linked Fund	$8,601.44	$8,922.62	$321.18	3.73
Schroders Commodity Fund	$9,146.00	$9,334.73	$188.73	2.06
Stock Holdings	$9,725.00	$9,680.00	($45.00)	-0.46
Phillip Money Market Fund	$15,031.85	$15,037.25	$5.20	0.03
Physical cash	$1,000.00	$1,000.00	$0.00	0.00
Market Value Of BTO Flat (to be built in 2016/2017)	$750,000.00	$750,000.00	$0.00
Total Assets	$821,606.36	$825,050.83	$3,444.47	0.42
Liabilities
Home Loan	$617,500	$617,500	$0.00	0.00
Net Worth (including flat to be built in 2016/2017)	$204,106.36	$207,550.83	$3,444.47	1.69
Investible Net Worth	$71,606.36	$75,050.83	$3,444.47	4.81

Highlights

• Additional income from GST voucher, reservist allowance and Singpost dividends.
  
• Market staying stagnant resulting in little changes to the value of my investment holdings.
  
• Total expenses for the month of July is about $700, a significant increase from my schooling days where I diligently maintained a budget of $10/day.
  
• $47,000 or about 63% of my investible net worth is now in cash/cash equivalents. This war chest should be ready for any unexpected downturn in the market. As major expenses (wedding and house) will be incurred in 2016/2017, a comfortable portion of my investible net worth should be set aside as cash/cash equivalents.
  
• Biosensors will be distributing dividends for the first time in August. Need some major market movements to utilize my war chest and increase my passive income significantly. For now, cash is a position.