YOUR CASH COUNTS
Financial Literacy
For Your Future
Although every person is unique, there are some financially based decisions that are common to most people in the 17-24 age group. For this reason, several application topics, procedures, and insights are discussed to help people make decisions that will positively impact personal wealth and build a financial foundation that improves the chances of a good life. Make no mistake about it, poor choices during this important time of one’s life can have major negative consequences that will last for a long time. Consequently, step up to the plate and learn more about the financial topic you are interested in and follow the described thought process. This commitment will keep you from saying later on “If I would have thought more about this I would have made a different choice”.
Each application procedure is activity based and begins with a description of a real world situation that ultimately requires action. Each real world situation is designed to be similar to what many people experience in real life as they contemplate making a decision. lthough the situation or case is not identical to yours, it places you in a decision making role and lets you practice making the right choice. A decision making guide is included that identifies and values personal goals, connects to the financially literate way of thinking, weighs expected benefits with expected costs of many feasible alternative choices, narrows the field of possible choices, provides feedback from reputable sources, and allows for a decision to be made that best fits what YOU would do at that moment in time.
The application procedure is a process of decision making that helps every individual to connect themselves to the choice. This means that the outcome of the process will vary with the individual and there is no one right answer. The major benefits of going through the activity is that you have internalized a feeling of commitment to a decision making process, a sense of confidence that your choice is a smart one for YOU, and the desire to gain further insights that will place you in the proper decision making position to make YOUR real choice for the topic in question.
After you have followed the directions found within the Application topic you selected stop and reflect on what you have done and what decision you have made. Ask yourself how closely this practice case is to your specific circumstances and identify the similarities and differences between what you have done and what you need to do for real. Chances are you feel closely linked to the practice case as, although generic, it is based on real world people and events. In addition, you probably wonder how well you did on the practice application and if there are important Insights you may have missed as you followed the decision making procedure. You certainly don’t want to omit important decision making items as you make the choice that fits your circumstances. Application Insights follows each application topic and is designed to identify selected financially related ideas or thoughts often missed by decision makers. Basically, Insights is a “have you thought about this” component to the decision making process. Note that the Application Insights material is not to be viewed as an answer key but a vehicle to add more depth of understanding related to the topic. This will help you feel more comfortable with the choice you make for yourself related to the application’s topic or question.
Select the specific real world situation listed that most closely relates to your needs and follow the activity guidelines:
You are now ready to tackle your specific situation in relation to the question or topic most important to you at this time. You have the process and insight necessary to make the final choice. Frankly, to the extent the real world case fits your specific situation you may already be done with the task. Commit to you decision and take action. As you now know, you need to review your choice often and changes can and probably should be made where possible. As financial decision making is a part of your life now more than ever, make the CHOICE to do it the best way you can. You will be very glad you did.