You are on page 1of 8

Adult Drug Court/Partners in Recovery Finance Workshop Syllabus and Schedule

Welcome to the Budget and Bills finance workshop facilitated by the Partners in Recovery program. In this workshop, you will learn about where your ideas about finance come from, discover your spending habits, and your wants and needs. You will also develop a budget, savings plan and tips to financial freedom. Facilitators: Duration: Location: Prerequisites: Tina Hopkins-Dukes and Sarah Van Diepen The workshop will be 90 minutes. 200 W Oak St. Suite 200 Fort Collins, CO Participant of the Adult Drug Court program

Materials Needed: Notebooks and writing instruments, flip board or white board, what worksheets do facilitators need to bring to the workshop Grading: Expectations: Participation in the workshop Participate through classroom worksheets, answer questions, discuss in small groups and large group discussions

Course Objectives: Discover how participants learned about finance and link positive and negative attributes to the past. Identify better spending habits. Acknowledge the difference between wants and needs. Record unhealthy spending habits and make a plan to eliminate or reduce them. Develop three plans: a budget, get-out-of-dept plan and a savings plan. Participants will be given basic financial tools that help them achieve a successful financial future.

Workshop Outline A. Introduction-facilitators and students (5 minutes) B. Discussion of financial terms on handout and Money and Goals worksheet (10 minutes) C. Discuss goals and objectives (60 minutes) (For this section, I would think about organizing it differently. Maybe think about listing each learning activity with the amount of time required to complete each activity. As it is, the flow is a little difficult to follow. Maybe you could find a different way to incorporate the goals and objectives with the learning activities.) Timeline: Each goal will be discussed in the beginning to give the students a basic understanding of the objective and learning activities. The goal, the objectives and the learning activity will be approximately 5 minutes each. Goal 1: Learners will increase their awareness of childhood financial values and create a personal connection between past and current financial tendencies. Objective 1: Students will be able to share positive and negative attitudes about childhood memories regarding money. How to meet the objective and learning activity: The facilitator will prompt the students with questions about their childhood. Students will be asked to share any childhood memories. If the students are reluctant to share, breaking in to small groups may help the students to open up. Objective 2: Students will draw conclusions in small groups from past experiences to deduce new patterns of spending. How to meet the objective and learning activity: Prior to breaking up in small groups, the facilitator will discuss how our past experiences can influence current spending habits. By using a personal example, the facilitator will give the students a guide to think about new ways to spend money. Objective 3: Students will describe how finance and success is linked. How to meet the objective and learning activity: A volunteer from the class will stand up at the dry erase board with two columns: finance and success. The remaining students will fill the columns with words that they associate with the two columns. As a group, we will discuss how the two are linked. Goal 2: Participants will be able to identify what their wants and needs are in order recognize ways to improve their financial picture. Objective 1: Students will be able to track their spending habits and define areas to alter spending.

How to meet the objective and learning activity: The students will be asked to write down in their notebooks what they spend their money on including the smallest of items like a pack of gum and the price of the item. A couple minutes later, we will use an example from the class of how much does one spend a week on gum, soda, cigarettes or coffee and figure out what they spend in a year on the little item. Then we will define areas to alter spending. Objective 2: Students will list their wants and needs. How to meet the objective and learning activity: In a notebook and on the white board, we will write down two columns of wants and needs. A discussion of maybe a percentage of a need is a want as well. For example, a need is shelter, but a want is a 5 bedroom house for 2 people. Objective 3: Students will originate a plan for wise shopping and avoid unhealthy spending. How to meet the objective and learning activity: Looking at their wants and needs columns and their spending habits, students will be able to figure out a plan. The facilitator will direct them in the creation of the plan. Objective 4: Students will be able to identify three areas of common unhealthy spending habits that can be eliminated. How to meet the objective and learning activity: In their notebooks and on the white board, we will write down three unhealthy spending habits that can be eliminated or reduced. A discussion will consist of the battle to replace one unhealthy habit for another and how to reduce spending by setting goals. Goal 3: Individuals will outline steps for a successful financial future and apply those steps in order to improve their lives. Objective 1: Students will complete a basic budget worksheet of their monthly expenses. How to meet the objective and learning activity: Students will be asked to take a blank piece of paper and make a list of monthly expenses. Once this is completed, we will talk about what other items that need to be considered on a budget. For example, car expenses, bus passes, upcoming birthday presents, Christmas and paying yourself are all important to the budget. Objective 2: Students will design a step by step plan to get out of debt. How to meet the objective and learning activity: The facilitator will discuss credit card interest rates and paying the minimum payment each month. We will discuss

the debt snowball which is paying off the smallest credit cards first and using that accumulated money into the next card. Objective 3: Students will develop a savings plan. How to meet the objective and learning activity: The class will discuss from the items learned in class how and how much they can save each month. The facilitator will ask the students to discuss ways they can cut back and save money. For instance, instead of having the fully loaded cable maybe cut back to the basic cable and save $90 a month. That money can go into savings. D. Conclusion-discussion, questions and assessment (5 minutes) The workshop is completed after 90 minutes and there will be no homework. The students will have the Money and Goals worksheet, the financial terminology handout, and discussions and class projects recorded in their notebooks. We will discuss the three main goals of the workshop and will answer questions. The assessment will be done mostly on observations during class, small group discussions and completeness of the worksheets.

Financial terminology Account: A financial relationship you have with an institution such as a bank or a lender. Checking, savings or credit card. Balance: How much money you have, or owe, in an account. Bankruptcy: A legal procedure for dealing with debt problems of individuals and businesses. Buyers remorse: Regretting a purchase soon after making it. Credit report: Report showing your payment history. Debit card: Linked with your checking account, this is a tool used to make purchases (not to be confused with a credit card). Debt snowball: Listing your debts smallest to largest and paying the minimum on all of them, then attacking the smallest with extra money that is available. Emergency fund: Three to six months of expenses is readily available in cash. Loan: The temporary borrowing of a sum of money. Needs: Economic goods and services that are considered basic, such as food, clothing and shelter. Savings: The process of setting aside money until a future date instead of spending it today. The goal of savings is to provide funds for emergencies, short term goals and investments. Tip: An amount paid beyond whats required, usually to express satisfaction with service quality. Also called gratuity. Wants: Desires for economic goods or services, not necessarily accompanied by the power to satisfy them. Wealth: Accumulated assets such as money and/or possessions, often as a result of savings and investing. Work ethic: How motivated you are in your work.

MONEY AND GOALS


NAME________________________________

Please rank the following based on how much you agree or disagree with the statement.

A=Agree U=Undecided D=Disagree

1. I know how to write a check. 2. I lose money often. 3. I balance my checkbook/ATM receipts regularly. 4. I tend to spend money as soon as I receive it. 5. If I have $20, I save it if I don't have to spend it on a need. 6. I comparison shop before I buy something. 7. I never know how much money I have. 8. I spend money that I don't have at the time of purchase. 9. I set financial goals and try to achieve them. 10. I tend to give people money and forget that they owe me.

AUD AUD AUD AUD AUD AUD AUD AUD AUD AUD

Money and Goals Results Use the standard below to determine the point value for each answer. Add your totals in each Group to determine what describes you most. A=5 U=3 D=1 COLUMN 1 1______ 3______ 5______ 7______ 9______ TOTAL______ COLUMN 2 2______ 4______ 6______ 8______ 10_____ TOTAL______

Which is greatest? COLUMN 1: You are smart with your money. You know exactly where it goes and you have Financial goals you wish to achieve. You think about a purchase before you make it. You also have knowledge about different forms of money like ATM transactions, checks, credit cards, money orders. Finance is a huge realm filled with many things to learn. It is obvious you know the basics, but there are many more exciting things to learn. You should be proud of your responsibility thus far. COLUMN 2: You have many exciting things to look forward to when learning about finance. It appears you like money and realize it is important, your actions do not show it. You do not think about having financial goals for yourself and you don't make your money last. This course will be very beneficial to you because you will be given the tools you need to be financially smart and stable. Try to soak in everything because these skills can help the rest of your life.

You might also like