Process

Let's get to it!

Before investing your money, you need to know how much money you have to invest.  This will depend upon your future salary. Please pick a career that you either know you want to do or are very interested in learning more about.

1.  Use a salary estimator to get a very broad idea of the amount of money you could be making.  (choose the option saying that you are using this site to "check for a different job."  After following the instructions, you will find an average salary.

2.  Take 10% of that number. You will be responsible for investing this soon.

3.  "But what does it mean to invest it?"  Well there are many different types of investments so it is important to weigh the risks and rewards of each type of investment.  Click on each type to find basic definitions. Analyze your investments and make your selections!

Graph the progress!

You will also need to track your investment. Every Friday  you will need to check your stock price. You will need to keep track of all the prices you accumulate over the course of the semester. At this time you also need to include some of your thoughts about the movement of your stock. For example, you might say "I think the stock price dropped because the market dropped." You will need to keep track of these reflections until the end.  I am not collecting them until the end in case you want to look back on them and draw some conclusions or see some patterns.

At the end of the semester you will need to create a graph to display the movement of your stock price over the course of the semester. There is a checklist for you to make sure you include all of the elements needed. You need to complete this using Excel. Also at this time you will need to write a reflection about your graph and a reflection of the movement of your stock over the course of the semester. (As mentioned earlier, I will be collecting your weekly reflections too.)

VOCABULARY BOOKLET

Many of you have not invested your money before and are relatively new to the financial scene (area), some are even new to the language. As a result much of the financial jargon (language)  may be unfamiliar to you. When you come across a word you have repeatedly seen and don't recognize this is mostly an indicator that this is a word you will want to know. To better remember it you will be creating a vocabulary booklet. You will be completing two parts to the vocabulary booklet.

1. You will need to go to a web dictionary and find a technical definition for each word. These may be very wordy and difficult to understand but you need to get familiar with the financial lingo (language).

Secondly, you will need to define the financial terms in your own words. This may take more than just a few words; to completely understand the word you may need several sentences or even a paragraph. Feel free to use pictures if that would help! You may write in your native language if necessary, but you must be able to explain it someone else.  I will provide starter sentences in English for those that need them. After you have defined the word from the dictionary and in your own words, you will need to pair up and compare answers with a classmate. Your partner will need to read your definitions to check if they are understandable. If they are not, you will need to change them. If they are, you need to find one more classmate to check them as well.

When you have defined your words you will need to compile them in an organized, creative and appealing manner using Word. If you are having a tough time with the language, again pictures can be a great supplement. As mentioned earlier, you can turn it in your native language too. At least half of your sentences must be attempted in English.

 Charity!

It is important to value people more than money.  By choosing a charity we hope to remind you that this is also a worthy investment, even though they don't pay you money back. There is no dollar sign that can be placed on helping out another person.

Take 1% of your salary and donate it to the charity of your choice. Here are a few lists of different charities.

Charites  and even more charites!

You will be asked to give a reflection on what your charity has been doing over the semester and why you believe in their cause.