FINN 3003 Personal Financial Management

Instructor	Alexey Malakhov
Office	WCOB 470
Class Time	M-F 8:00AM - 11:45AM
Classroom	WCOB 203
Office Hours	Every day after class, or by appointment
Phone	(479) 575-6118
Email	amalakhov at walton.uark.edu
Website Course Website	http://www.alexeymalakhov.com https://amalakho.hosted.uark.edu/teaching/finn3003/

Course Objective  The primary objective is to provide a framework for personal financial management. Topics to be covered include budgeting, financial planning, managing credit, taxes, insurance, investments, and retirement planning. Course Materials Textbook (recommended): Personal Finance by Kapoor, Dlabay, Hughes, Hart. 12th edition, McGraw-Hill, 2017 Lecture Notes - will be available on the web Recommended periodicals and newspapers: Economist, Wall Street Journal, CNN Money Books for fun: Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry by Helaine Olen A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb Movies for fun: Wall Street, Boiler Room, Rogue Trader, Trading Places, The Big Short There are assigned readings for each class. I expect that students come to class prepared for the materials that will be covered that day (the required readings are identified as Lecture# for lecture notes and PF# for the chapter in the textbook). I may make cold calls on students to answer questions. I do not expect perfect answers from you, the thought process is way more important. I also strongly encourage students to ask questions - in many cases an insightful question is more valuable than a correct answer. You will also receive an extra point to your score on the Final Exam for catching each of my mistakes (believe me, you will have many chances). There is a limit of one point per person per lecture though. Course Requirements There will be three to four individual written assignments, one midterm, and a final exam. Assignments are to be completed on McGraw-Hill Connect. Late assignments will not be accepted. The lowest grade on your assignments will be dropped. The midterm and the final exam will be closed-book. You can bring one standard size (8.5 x 11) cheat-sheet (both sides) for the midterm and two standard size (8.5 x 11) cheat-sheets (both sides) for the final exam. Grading Your grade will be based on your class participation, assignments, the midterm and the final exam. The weights are given below:                Attendance                                             bonus 1%                Assignments                                               30%                Midterm                                                     30%                Final Exam                                                 40% Grades will be curved based on the weighted average scores. If your Final Exam grade is better than the midterm, I will replace your Midterm grade with the Final Exam Grade. Don't hesitate letting me know if you think that you were adversely affected by a grading error (you do not have to report any grading errors in your favor). Attendance Attendance is expected (and taken) for every class. If you have to miss a class, you do not have to ask for my permission. Just remember that class attendance may add up to 1% bonus to your grades. Academic Integrity Students have the responsibility to know and strictly observe the University of Arkansas Academic Integrity regulations as described at http://honesty.uark.edu/students/index.php. Violators will be sanctioned according to the Academic Integrity Sanctions guidlines as described at http://honesty.uark.edu/sanction-rubric/.