Enhance

Saving • scarcity, choice, and opportunity cost • factors that influence spending choices, such as advertising, peer pressure, and spending choices of others

• comparing the costs and benefits of spending decisions

• basics of budgeting and planning • making a spending decision • payment methods, costs, and benefits of each • budgeting and classification of expenses • satisfaction, determinants of demand, costs of information search, choice of product durability • the role of government and other institutions in providing information for consumers • concept of saving and interest • how people save money, where people can save money, and why people save money • the role that financial institutions play as intermediaries between savers and borrowers

• the role government agencies such as the Federal

Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) play in protecting savings deposits • role of markets in determining interest rates • the mathematics of saving • the power of compound interest • real versus nominal interest rates

• present versus future value • financial regulators • the factors determining the value of a person’s savings over time

• automatic savings plans, "rainy-day” funds • saving for retirement

Using Credit • concept of credit and the cost of using credit • why people use credit and the sources of credit • why interest rates vary across borrowers • basic calculations related to borrowing (principal, interest, compound interest) • credit reports and credit scores • behaviors that contribute to strong credit reports and scores

• impact of credit reports and scores on consumers • consumer protection laws

Financial Investing • concept of financial investment • variety of possible financial investments • calculate rates of return

• relevance and calculation of real and after-tax rates of return

• how markets cause rates of return to change in response to variation in risk and maturity • how diversification can reduce risk

• how financial markets react to changes in market conditions and information

Protecting and Insuring • concepts of financial risk and loss • insurance (transfer of risk through risk pooling) • managing risk • identity theft • life insurance products • how to protect oneself against identity theft