HDFS 238 Personal Finance

Assignment #3- Personal Finance Interview

Maximum Points: 15 points
Part One: Conducting a Personal Finance Interview (10 points)
Since this is an applied course, this last assignment will ask you to practice the financial skills presented in this course and apply them to your life. For this assignment, you need to do the following:
1. Identifya financial professional (examples arelisted below)and select an individual to interview.
2. Contact the professional (by phone, e-mail, or in person) and conduct a 15-20 minute phone or in-person interview with the individual.
3. After your conversation, reflect on the interview and submit via D2L either:
o Ashort (approximately 3 minute) video reflection that provides a verbal analysis of your experience. If choosing the video reflection, use your own words to describe the experience and identify what you have learned from the experience. Make sure to reference all information on the rubric when completing the video. Please upload your video to YouTube or MSU Media Space in D2L; include a web link for us to view the video.
o Atwo page (double spaced) written paper describing your experience.Make sure to reference all information on the rubric when completing the paper. Paper should be a two page, double spaced synopsis using complete sentences, and adequate detail.
4. Provide documentation from the financial professionalto show interview completion. This can be:
o A copy of the business card from the individual with their signature on it and a date (scan or take a picture of the card and upload it in D2L)
o An email confirmation from the financial professional (that is sent to you and take a screenshot of the email and upload it in D2L)
For the purpose of this assignment, you may choose to interview any of the financial professionals listed below:
• Housing Counselor/Realtor: Interview a local housing counselor and/or realtor to better understand the housing market in your community
• Insurance Professional:Speak with an Insurance professional to understand their role with helping consumers
• Investing/Tax Professional: Interview a financial professional (Financial Planner, Broker, Advisor, CPA, etc.) to understand their role with helping consumers make sound investing decisions
• Local Lender: Interview a local lender at a financial institution to better understand local lending options
• Student Loan Officer: Interview a local student loan officer at the MSU Office of Financial Aid (or another local university) to better understand student loan repayment options
• Other: If different from the above list, please seek approval from your instructor; please note – family members may be interviewed IF they work as one of the identified financial professionals. If you have a question about this, please feel free to contact Dr. Tobe.
Additional thoughts:
This assignment asks you to interview a personal finance professional not a business finance professional! Please ensure the individual you choose can speak on personal finance issues. Family members can be interviewed if they are employed in a field that focuses on personal finance issues. If you have questions OR if you need help identifying an individual to interview, please email Dr. Tobe at tobee@msu.edu.
Interview Format:
Although the interview format for this assignment is flexible, you must cover, minimally, the following topics:
• Overview of the Financial Professional (learn a little about the financial professional) – at minimum, should include:
o Professional’s current job title/responsibilities; Area of Personal Finance they focus on
o Educational Background and Professional Experience of the individual (i.e. credentials)
• Financial Professional Advice – at minimum, should include:
o Three biggest personal finance mistakes they see in their profession
o Three take-away messages (in the area of personal finance) that they would give current college students
Personal Reflection should include three components:
1. Analysis of the Interview (7 points)
o Provide an overview of the financial professional you interviewed (2 points) – Must include:
 Professional’s current job title/responsibilities and area of personal finance they focus on
 Educational Background and Professional Experience of the individual (i.e. credentials)
o Identify and explain their advice to you (5 points)– At minimum, must include:
 Identify and explain the three biggest personal finance mistakes they see by consumers in their profession
 Identify and explain three take-away messages (in the area of personal finance) that they would give current college students
2. Reflection of the Experience (2 points)
o What is your reflection of this experience?
o How will knowing the information shared by the professional benefit you in the future?
3. Documentation of Interview(1 point) (uploaded picture of an email or signed and dated business card)

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Part Two: Developing your personal finance “index card”
Olen and Pollack (January 2016) wrote a book, “The Index Card: Why Personal Finance doesn’t have to be complicated.” In this book, they identify various financial tips/suggestions to consider around money management. The first day of class, I gave each student a blank index card with the hope that you would begin to identify financial tips for your own life. Now is the time to fill up your index card.
1) Create your personal finance index card. On this card, identify the financial messages/concepts that you have learned in this class (and outside of the class) that you would like to keep with you for future use. Each card should cover at least four (at minimum) messages (however, you may list as many as you want). Create your index card on a powerpoint slide and upload it in D2L. Your creativity is encouraged. (3 points)

2) Reflection of your Personal Finance Index Card: Provide a short reflection of your index card by describing your lessons learned and why each message is important to you! (2 points) You may complete this reflection by:
a. Completing a written reflection, minimally a one page paper
OR
b. Uploading a short 2 minute video – describing your index card and why these messages are important.

 

 

 

HDFS 238 Personal Finance
Assignment #3
Rubric for Personal Finance Interview

Applying Financial Skills to Your Life

Points Possible Did you complete this?
Provide an overview of the Financial professional you interviewed (3 points)
• Professional’s current job title/responsibilities and area of personal finance
• Educational Background and Professional Experience of the individual (i.e. credentials)
Financial Professional advice
• In your own words, identify and explain the three biggest personal finance mistakes they see in their profession by consumers
• In your own words, identify and explainthree take-away messages (in the area of personal finance) that they would give current college students
Reflection of the Experience
• What is your reflection of the experience?
• How will knowing the information shared by the professional benefit you in the future?
Documentation of the Interview
Provide a scanned copy of an email or signed/dated business card from the financial professional. Upload the scanned copy or picture into the D2L dropbox.

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7 points

 

 

 

2 points

 

 

 

 

1 point
Part Two: Creating Your Personal Finance Index Card
• Create the index card as a powerpoint slide and upload into D2L (3 points)
• Reflect on the messages and their importance- can be either a short 2 minute video (post link in D2L) or 1 page reflection (2 points) 5 points

 

http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/01/08/462250239/when-an-index-card-of-financial-tips-isnt-enough-this-book-is-there