Fall 2012-ABED 6107 Instructional Strategies Group Project for Technology Prof. S.

Hazari Topic: Personal Finance for High School Seniors Group: Sanders McGown, Erica McLean and Anthony Parker The purpose of our group web project is to provide students with direction and resources regarding personal finance. Lesson plans were developed to engage student development about money and its effect. By using collaborative activities, the students ability, knowledge and learning experience will be stimulated to engage their critical thinking. The course design on the website is organized to focus on a multimodal instructional learning theory. Our activities will emphasize what student sees and hears to create meaningful learning, while focusing on their cognitive development. Our personal finance website is aimed towards high school seniors to provide them with the skills and resources on handling money. As high school seniors prepare to leave home for college, military or career they will need personal finance life skills. Devasagaym, Johns-Masten and McCollum (2012) state that providing students with exercises that require engagement and involvement are found to be an invaluable pedagogical tool to achieve learning objective that relates to decision making in real life (p. 1). Students will learn how to complete forms for employment, about banking, balancing a checkbook, create savings, budget, responsibility of having credit card and its effect on credit score. Students will also be provided information to learn about different retirement plans. Students instruction will be based on the following lesson plans: Lesson 1 Students will learn the forms needed for employment and income tax: a. Form W4 Form W4 should be completed so that your employer can withhold the correct federal income tax from your pay. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf When they are an employee, a withholding calculator will help student determine whether they need to give their employer a new Form W4, to avoid having too much or too little federal income tax withheld from their pay. Students can use your results from the withholding calculator to help fill out Form W4. http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/IRS-Withholding-Calculator b. Form G4 - in the state of Georgia, Form G4 (similar to Form W4) should be completed so that employer can withhold the correct state income tax from pay. A new Form G4 should be completed when personal or financial situation changes. https://etax.dor.ga.gov/inctax/withholding/TSD_Employees_Withholding_Allowance _Certificate_G4.pdf

c. Form I9 - Form I9 is to document that each new employee (both citizen and non citizen) hired after November 6, 1986 is authorized to work in the United States. http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-9.pdf d. Form W2 - Every employer engaged in a trade or business who pays money, including non cash payments of $600 or more for the year for services performed by an employee must file a Form W2 for each employee. Form W2 includes all amounts of income, social security, Medicare or income tax that were withheld if employee had claimed withholding allowance(s) or had not claimed exemption from withholding on Form W4. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw2.pdf e. Form 1040 is used to calculate federal income tax where rules apply to all U.S. citizens, regardless of where they live, and resident aliens. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040.pdf f. Form GA500 is used to calculate state income tax where rules apply to all U.S. citizens and resident aliens, based on information on federal income tax Form 1040. https://etax.dor.ga.gov/inctax/2011_forms/TSD_Individual_Income_Tax_Return_500 -2011_Fillable.pdf Lesson 2 Students will be provided information on what is needed to open bank account. Federal law requires certain personal identification documents to open a bank account. A valid photo ID such as a driver's license, state-issued or military ID is needed. Non-citizens must provide their alien registration number. Individuals must also have their Social Security number and proof of address (a utility bill or apartment lease will do). If the student does not meet the minimum age requirement for opening a student checking or savings account with bank or credit union, it is recommended that a parent or guardian is present. Students over the age of 18 can open an account without parent. However, if student is under 18, the bank may require parent's name on students account. A minimum deposit is required to open bank account. Students will be advised that by depositing initial funds activates the account. Therefore, cash or check payable should be brought with student to open account. Lesson 3 Students will be provided information on difference between checking and savings account, its purpose and how to balance. What is a Checking Account? A checking account is a bank account that allows access to your money. It is the account that is normally used to pay bills. Money in a checking account can be accessed by writing a check, setting up an automatic transfer or using debit card. These transactions are debits and subtracted from account balance. A deposit is a credit and added to account balance. When a checking account is opened, student will need to keep track of its balance. This will prevent student from overdrawing their account. It is also very

important to balance account each month, as this will help catch any mistakes student or bank has made. An example on how to balance checkbook: http://www.wikihow.com/Balance-aCheckbook What is Savings Account? A savings account is the most basic account for a student who is just beginning to save money. Savings account offer interest on the account which interest rate is low. Savings account also limits access to the funds. The only ways you can access the funds are through a withdrawal at the bank or at the ATM. Students will be instructed on minimum balance requirements and limited number of withdrawals each month. They will also learn about automatic transfers and deposits into your account, which will help them save money. Students will be advised to pay themselves first by trying to deposit at least 10% of their income when saving. Their saving should include an emergency fund or at least three to six month worth of expenses. Lesson 4 Students will learn the importance of budgeting. Why Budget? Students need to know where their money goes by keeping track of all their expenses for a month. Creating a budget is an important step towards becoming financially responsible and to help student reach their savings goals. How to create budget? To get started, students should be instructed to collect pay stubs, utility bills, credit card statements, loan statements, receipts, insurance bills, etc. Once they've gathered all the necessary information, add up total income and subtract total expenses. Their expenses shouldn't exceed their income. If their expenses are greater than income, they'll need to look for ways to cut back. Obviously, bills like utility bills, food and gas are important expenses that will need to be paid, but they will have to learn to adjust their budget that will put them in a much better financial position. It's really important for students to know the difference between wants and needs when budgeting. It's also important to pay yourself in your budget. Each month, set aside some money that you put into a savings account. It's also a good idea to set aside money each month for unexpected situations. It will be suggested to have an emergency fund with $1000 minimum. If emergency fund is not used, that's just more savings to have for the future. By creating a budget and sticking to it will help control their financial destiny. A sample budget planner can be found at: http://www.citizensbank.com/moneyhelp/budgeting/Calculator.aspx

Lesson 5 Students will be instructed on understanding credit What is a credit card? A credit card is an instrument that allows individuals to borrow money that is expected to be repaid. Credit card companies charge interest on balances if not paid in full each month. There are rules on what credit card companies must disclose, established by the Federal Reserve: http://www.federalreserve.gov/consumerinfo/wyntk_creditcardrules.htm and http://www.federalreserve.gov/consumerinfo/wyntk_creditcardrules2.htm What is a credit score? Credit score is a number ranging between 300 and 850 which is derived from your credit history. It gives lenders a quick view of you as a borrower and allows them to make decisions about how risky lending money to individual will be. It is used to represent the likelihood that person will succeed financially. Always be aware of things that can harm credit score such as making late payments or going over credit limit. The higher the number in credit score, lenders will likely conclude that individual is capable of repaying debts. This assessment of creditworthiness will help determine whether you receive an excellent offer from lenders. Understanding Credit Report Once student creates credit, their information is tracked with a score on a credit report. The credit score report starts compiling at age 18 and includes information on where they live, pay their bills and if they've been sued or arrested. It also includes behavior with credit cards. Consumer reporting agencies sell your information to businesses that used to evaluate your applications for credit and loans. Late payments of more than 30 days will go on your credit report and impacts it by lowering credit score. Students should get free credit report each year. https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp Lesson 6 Retirement Plans students will learn and be provided examples on the differences of some retirement plans: a. Section 401k - A 401k plan allows employees to elect to contribute a portion of their income into an account in their name and instruct their employers to make contributions on their behalf for retirement. The contribution is treated as tax deferred to employee until withdrawal. This deferment is a tax savings to employees pretax income by way of salary reduction and therefore reduces employees tax liability. There are withdrawal provisions for distribution of money in plan. However all monies set aside in the plan are tax deferred for the employee until withdrawal.

b. Section 403b similar to 401k plan but considered a tax sheltered annuity. However, this retirement plan is for non profit organizations, public, private and parochial school teachers, school superintendents, college professors, clergymen, and social workers. The investments in Section 403b plans are owned by the employee. c. Section 457 similar to 403b but reserved for employees of other public bodies such as states, counties, and municipalities. The investments in Section 457 plans are owned by the employer. d. Traditional IRA an individual retirement account where participant earns wages and does not normally participate in an employer maintained retirement plan. Investment in traditional IRA is tax deferred until withdrawal when the individual is likely to be in a lower tax bracket and can be deductible on Form 1040. e. Roth IRA similar to a traditional IRA except contributions is not deductible on Form 1040 and distributions are tax free. In accordance with the usability guidelines, established by the U.S. Department of Health, our website incorporates several functions such as web 2.0 components, interactive modules and flexibility in design. The Financial Guidance 101 tagline returns students to the homepage from any page on the website. The homepage also includes drop down menus. The ease of using our website coincides with Nathan and Yeow statement that navigating a website has to be simple as users want surfing to be predictable, consistent and intuitive without requiring much thinking (2011, p. 157). By the website containing these functions also allows it to be more interesting. The goal of our website is to use multi-media instructional strategies/learning theories that will enhance our ability to effectively relay course material and offer advice to students based on personal finance research. Lisa Burke (2007) states the multimedia theory is a coordinated presentation of narration and pictures that guides learners cognitive processes in selecting and organizing relevant information to build cause-and-effect relationships. The course information contained on website will allow students to enhance their understanding, and use these techniques in their decision making on personal finance. Our website will provide high school seniors information and tools regarding personal finance. It is our vision for students to be provided with money life skills, knowledge and resources which are significant lessons in business education. It is our hopes that by teaching personal finance the education system will make this a core requirement for high school seniors.

References: Annual Credit Report. Retrieved November 29, 2012 from https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp Burke, L. (2007). Lessons Learned From Instructional Design Theory: An Application in Management Education. Business Communication Quarterly. Vol. 70, Issue 4, p. 414430. Retrieved November 29, 2012 from Ebscohost Database Citizens Bank Budget Planner. Retrieved November 29, 2012 from http://www.citizensbank.com/moneyhelp/budgeting/Calculator.aspx Credit Card Rules: Federal Reserve System. Retrieved November 29, 2012 from http://www.federalreserve.gov/consumerinfo/wyntk_creditcardrules.htm and http://www.federalreserve.gov/consumerinfo/wyntk_creditcardrules2.htm Devasagayam, R., Johns-Masten, K. & McCollum, J. (2012) Linking Information Literacy, Experiential Learning, and Student Characteristics: Pedagogical Possibilities in Business Education. Academy of Educational Leadership Journal. Retrieved September 27, 2012 from ProQuest Database. Georgia Dept of Revenue. Retrieved November 29, 2012 from https://etax.dor.ga.gov/ Glossary Definitions. Retrieved November 29, 2012 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page Internal Revenue Service. Retrieved November 29, 2012 from http://www.irs.gov/ Nathan, R. and Yeow, P. (2011). Crucial Web Usability Factors of 36 Industries for Students: A Large-scale Empirical Study. Electronic Commerce Research Vol. 11 Issue 2, p151-180. Retrieved October 5, 2012 from Ebscohost Database. Primerica. Retrieved November 29, 2012 from http://www.primerica.com/public/ US Citizenship and Immigration Services. Retrieved November 29, 2012 from http://www.uscis.gov/ U.S. Department of Health. (2006). Research-based web design & usability guidelines. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved from http://www.usability.gov/pdfs/guidelines.html