Unit Plan for Basic Finance Program

Unit Plan for Basic Finance Program

Overview

The Basic Finance Program of Coos Health & Wellness is targeting residents of Coos County that have little to no prior knowledge or skills in personal finance. To complete the full program, there will be two meetings expected with your client. Materials that you may go over with clients include a guidebook, informational brochures, and various worksheets.

Who is eligible?

• Anybody that shows expressed interest, especially those under 200% poverty level

Statement of Purpose

According to the Coos County Health Assessment of 2013, 17.6% of residents in Coos County fall below the federal poverty level, and almost 40% of residents fall below 200% of the federal poverty level. The median household income is at $37,258, more than $10,000 less than the Oregon state median household income. Almost 3% of adults in Coos County have less than a 9th grade education, and 9.7% have completed some high school but have not received high school diplomas. About one quarter of Coos County residents have received a Bachelor’s degree or higher, leaving the other three quarters of residents having little to no higher education than high school. Between the higher than average low-income status of Coos County and the lack of educated individuals, a need for basic personal finance education is crucial for this community.

Goals

1. Participants will demonstrate a set of practical personal finance skills to improve their credit score.
2. Participants will have a concept of where they can improve on in their budget and can apply that to their everyday life.
3. Participants will develop a positive outlook on being able to manage their finances.

Behavioral objectives

Cognitive

1. Participant will have a basic understanding of what a good credit score is and ways one may go about improving their credit.
2. Participant will understand the concept of interest, and how that can negatively and positively affect you. They will know that a high interest rate on a credit card is a bad thing, and a high interest rate on a savings account is a good thing.
3. Participant will understand the pros and cons of establishing an account with a credit union vs. a bank.
4. Participant will have a better understanding of commonly used personal finance terms.

Affective

1. Participant will feel wary of payday loans and other predatory lending methods and will not want to use them.
2. Participant demonstrates a desire to start a savings/emergency funds account and starts acting on this desire.
3. Participant has identified financial goals, both short-term and long-term

Psychomotor

1. Participant will be able to come up with an expense tracking worksheet that they will fill out for a month’s time.
2. Participant will assess expense worksheet and find places in their spending that they could budget better.

Outline

1. First meeting
2. Basic Financial Needs Assessment
3. Personal Finance Terms
4. Fill in the blank worksheet
5. Your Credit Score
6. Visual of poor, fair, good, and great credit ratings
7. How credit score is evaluated (pie chart)
8. How to improve credit
9. Don’t have much credit? How to start establishing credit
10. Credit Cards
11. The 5 big tips on having a credit card
12. Credit union vs. Banks
13. What credit union is, why it’s different than a bank
14. Pros and Cons of credit union
15. Resources of Coos County: Northwest Community Credit Union, South Coast ILWU Credit Union
16. Savings and Emergency Funds
17. Rules to go by
18. Predatory Lending
19. Personal story of individual falling into payday loan trap
20. Facts on payday loans in Oregon
21. Expense Tracking handout
22. Look over expense tracking handout to see what you need to not include or include for your homework
23. Homework to bring in to next meeting
24. Expense tracking: track expenses for one full month. Ask client to try to add up totals if they can before your next appointment
25. Second Meeting
26. Go over expense tracking worksheet with client. Add up amounts if they haven’t been totaled yet
27. Participant fills out worksheet entitled “Thinking about your Results”
28. Take retrospective test: “The Financial Skills Ladder”

Materials

1. Materials: First visit

Facilitator

• Guide to Personal Finances
• Expense Tracking Worksheet
• “Thinking about your Results” worksheet

Participant

• Paper and pencil

1. Materials: Second visit

Facilitator

1. Calculator
2. Pen and paper
3. “Thinking about your Results” worksheet
4. Retrospective quiz

Participant

1. Filled-out expense tracking sheet