FINS5510 Personal Financial Planning

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FINS5510 Personal Financial Planning

INSTRUCTIONS

Financial Plan Assignment

Overview

Financial Plan	Date*
Assignment Due Date	1pm Friday Week 11 (9 Aug 2024)
Release of Results	5pm Friday Week 14 (30 Aug 2024)

*All times are based on Sydney time

The purpose of this assignment is to help you to develop a detailed financial plan that will act as a financial roadmap for the rest of your life. Each section of your financial plan provides you with the opportunity to reflect deeply on the theory covered in the course and to make practical, specific and detailed application of that theory to your expected future life stages. You should work on your financial plan gradually during the term as you cover each Unit. You should use the Microsoft Word template provided and submit the final document in Microsoft Word format.There is no word limit for this assignment but most submissions are between 3,000 and 9,000 words.

The financial plan that you will develop is far more comprehensive (and useful) than a typical ‘Statement of Advice (SOA)’ that a financial adviser would prepare for a client. This is because the focus of this course is on understanding the broad issues that financial advisers need to consider when advising clients. The follow-on course to this one, FINS5537 Financial Planning Advice and Ethics, will focus on the process of developing a compliant and ethical SOA for clients.  Nevertheless,  under the final section of your Assignment you are required to identify the differences between the Financial Plan that you are submitting for this course and a compliance Statement of Advice (SOA).

This is an individual assignment. Copying the work of another student, basing your financial plan on another student’s work, asking anyone else to write your financial plan, obtaining assistance from an Artificial Intelligence computer program, providing a copy of your financial plan to another student or posting your financial plan on a website is academic misconduct and will result in a fail grade being awarded for this course.

Weight

The Financial Plan assignment is worth 50% of your assessment for this course.

Backup your work

You should be writing your financial plan assignment gradually over the term after you have completed each Unit. You also need to plan for a situation in which the file may become corrupted or your device is damaged. Please create regular copies of your work and place them into a ‘Backups’ folder. Make sure this folder is synchronisedonto a USB key or a cloud-based storage solution such as OneDrive or Dropbox (or an equivalent service in China for students who cannot access these services). Note that UNSW provides you with a free Onedrive account. Loss of data or a damaged device does not constitute grounds for Special Consideration.

Note that if you have saved your file in your UNSW Onedrive account, you should be able to restore a backup from your file history. Here is a linkon how to do this.

If you lose your file and are unable to restore from a backup, a standard late penalty of 5 marks (out of 100) per day will apply. Technical problems with your file or device does not represent grounds for a Special Consideration extension.

Late Penalties

Late submission will incura penalty of 5% per day or part thereof (including weekends) from the due date and time. An assessment will not be accepted after 5 days (120 hours) of the original deadline unless special consideration has been approved. An assignment is considered late if the requested format, such as hard copy or electronic copy, has not been submitted on time or where the ‘wrong’ assignment has been submitted.

The late penalty applies to your score for the financial plan (not the maximum possible score). For example, if your raw score is 70/100 and the plan is submitted 2 days late, a 10 mark penalty will apply and so your score would be reduced to 60/100.

Note that there is a small ‘grace period’ of a few minutes after the submission time to allow for slow internet connections or slow website performance. No penalty will apply if the submission is within this ‘grace period’ . Please do not email me asking if your submission falls within this grace period.

Since you are supposed to be working on this assignment gradually each week as the course progresses, the maximum period of special consideration that will be granted for this assessment (for any reason) is 7 days from the original due date. Also, the maximum extension that will be granted for Equitable Learning Plans will also by 7 days from the original due date. Any submissions received after this will automatically be awarded a score of zero.

Special Consideration

Special consideration will only be granted in exceptional cases. You are responsible for developing your financial plan gradually as you work through each Unit of the course materials. You should work on your financial plan as you cover each Unit and avoid leaving it until last minute. You are responsible for completing your financial plan well before the due date/time to allow for unexpected circumstances or illness. Being ill during the  last week  before the date of submission will not normally constitute grounds for special consideration.

Loss of data or a damaged device does not constitute grounds for Special Consideration. You are responsible to regularly backup your work and synchronise it onto a cloud-based storage solution (such as OneDrive or Dropbox).

If special consideration is granted, the maximum extension that will be granted is 7 days from the original due date. Any financial plans received more than 7 days from the original due date will automatically be awarded a score of zero.

An application for Special Consideration together with supporting documentation must be submitted online within 3 working days of the due date. The process for applying for special consideration is here:https://student.unsw.edu.au/special-consideration

Individual Assessment

This is an individual assessment. You are permitted to discuss the contents of this assessment with your family, a spouse or partner. However, all written work, research and supporting calculations must be your own work. Seeking assistance with your written  work  or  financial  modelling  constitutes  academic  misconduct.  Seeking assistance from Artificial Intelligence computer programs also constitutes academic misconduct. Providing assistance to any other students also constitutes academic misconduct. Copying or paraphrasing the work of any other student (from current or previous terms) constitutes academic misconduct. Copying the work of another student and  then  changing  the  details  to  reflect  your  situation  and  strategies  constitutes academic misconduct. Using another student’s financial plan as a ‘reference’ for you while you complete your own financial plan is also academic misconduct. Posting a copy of your assignment on a website is academic misconduct (except for submitting your assignment on the course website under the appropriate submission link).

If another student approaches you for assistance, please note the time, date and details of the incident and email the details to meat [email protected].

UNSW has no tolerance for students who are dishonest or seek to obtain an unfair advantage over other students. Academic misconduct is a serious offence. It can result in zero being awarded for this assessment, a failure grade for the course and/or removal from the University.

No Artificial Intelligence

Using Artificial Intelligence programs or services is not permitted in this assessment.

There are two exceptions to the above ‘no use of Artificial Intelligence’ rule. Students for whom English is their second language are allowed to use Artificial Intelligence programs  (such as Google Translate) to translate from their native  language  into English or to translate from English to their native language. Students with writing difficulties are allowed to use Artificial Intelligence programs (such as Grammarly) to help correct their spelling and grammar.

Template

You should use the Microsoft Word Template document provided under the ‘Financial Plan’ section of the course website. Do not use another student’s financial plan as your template. Note that as a student at UNSW, you have access to the full suite of Microsoft Office 365 applications. More information about accessing this software is provided below.

Software

Your Learning Community Report should be submitted as a Microsoft Word document. All students at UNSW have access to the full suite of Microsoft Office 365 products for free (on both Windows and Mac). This includes downloadable versions of the entire Microsoft Office suite to 15 devices (5 desktops, 5 tablets and 5 mobiles).

The steps for downloading the latest version of MS Office are as follows:

1.  Go to https://login.microsoftonline.com

2.  Login with the same zPass that you use for Moodle using the ‘[email protected]’ version  of your  UNSW  student  email.  For  example: [email protected]

3.  Click the ‘Install apps’ button

4.  Choose ‘Office 365 apps’ .

For students who use the Linux operating system, you should either use one of the university labs to write the assignment, use a word processor that will export to a Microsoft Word file format or use a Google Doc and export to Microsoft Word format.

Formatting

For headings and body text, please use the styles in the Microsoft Word template provided.

Fonts: Please only use either Arial (PC) or Helvetica (Mac) fonts. Students with dyslexia who find these fonts difficult to read may use Times New Roman.

Font sizes: Please use font size 11 pt for your body text.

Line spacing: Use the default in the Microsoft Word Template provided (1.08 lines).

Styles: Use the styles provided in the Microsoft Word Template provided. File format: You should submit your file in Microsoft Word format.

Filename: Please use the filename following the format ‘zID Plan.docx’ . If your zID is z999999, you should name your document ‘z999999 Plan.docx’ .

For tables, diagrams, captions, footnotes and other minor formatting elements, you can choose your own formatting and styles. Please make sure they are easy to read.

Table of Contents

You should update the page numbers in the table of contents before submitting the final version of your financial plan as a Microsoft Word document. This can be done as follows:

1.  User your mouse to select the table of contents on page 1

2.  Go to the ‘References’ tab on the command bar at the top of Microsoft Word

3.  Select ‘Update Table’ under the ‘Table of Contents’ group on the Ribbon.

4.  Select ‘Update Page Numbers Only’ to only update the page numbers or select ‘Update Entire Table’ to also update your Headings.

File Format

You should submit your file in Microsoft Word format.

File Name

Please name your financial plan using the following file name format (and extension): zID Plan.docx

For example, if your student zID is z1234567, your file should be named: z1234567 Plan.docx

Word Limit

There is no word limit or page limit for this assignment. This is your plan and so you can ‘invest’ as much time and detail into it as you like. In past terms, most financial plans are somewhere between 3,000 words and 9,000 words.

References and citations

As a general principle, you do not need to reference the concepts covered in my lecture slides unless the lecture slides themselves cite another source or it makes sense to do so given  how you are  using the  concept  in your assignment.  In  most  cases,  I’m expecting you to reference other sources that you have identified to support the ideas in your financial plan including websites, articles, books or videos.

Citations  and  references  for  any  other  article  or  website  should  follow  standard university  assignment  citation  and  referencing  principles.  You  may  use  Harvard, Oxford or APA referencing (see below).

For websites, I’m usually happy with just the author (or company), the date that it was accessed and a URL (preferably hyperlinked). For example:

"Domain Property Group, accessed 29 April 2024,https://www.domain.com.au"

As a general principle, you do not need to reference any pictures that you use in your financial plan.

The following website provides some good examples for referencing for other documents:

https://student.unsw.edu.au/citing-different-sources

When referring to other sources, the standard method for citations at UNSW is in-text (Harvard). However, in this course I don’t mind whether you use Harvard, Oxford or APA style referencing.

More information on the in-text (Harvard) method is here:

https://student.unsw.edu.au/harvard-referencing

More information on the footnote (Oxford) method is here:

https://student.unsw.edu.au/footnote-bibliography-or-oxford-referencing-system

More information on APA referencing method is here:

https://www.student.unsw.edu.au/how-cite-references-apa-style

References are not included in your word count.

Privacy

This assignment includes personal information that is both private and confidential. Your assignment is not used for any other purpose except to provide you with a mark for this assessment. It will not be used for academic research or commercial purposes. You should also note that more than 100 students undertake this course each term and so it is unlikely that I will remember any of your personal information after I finish marking them all (my memory isn’t that good!). However, you should note that your financial plan will be uploaded onto the Turnitin plagiarism detection service for the sole purpose of checking for similarity with other assignments in past, present or future terms.

If you are concerned about the privacy of the information, you are welcome to change, omit or redact any of the specific details that you are concerned about  (such as information about your current income or assets). Doing so will likely make very little difference to the usefulness of your financial plan, since you can simply change those details back to the correct values after submission.

Spouse or Partner

If you have a spouse or partner, you are also welcome to perform this assignment based on your ‘collective’ situation and ‘collective’ plan for the future. Discussing your financial plan assignment with your spouse or partner does not constitute academic misconduct. However, the written financial plan, supporting research and calculations should  be  your own work. For  more  information,  see ‘Individual  Assessment’ on page4.

Foreign Countries and Currencies

The financial plan assignment is designed to assess the key learning outcomes of this course.  Many  of  these  learning  outcomes  are  specific  to  the  Australian  financial system. This presents a problem for overseas students who plan to live abroad after they graduate, since the taxation and retirement saving systems in those countries may be quite different from Australia.

Whether or not you plan to live abroad for a significant component of your life after graduation,  for  the   purposes  of  this  assessment you   must assume that the Australian system of taxation and retirement savings (superannuation) will apply for your entire life. For instance, you may base your plan on the assumption that you will live in China for the rest of your life, but you must assume that only the Australian system of taxation will apply (not the system  in China) and that you will use the Australian superannuation system to save for retirement. I understand that this could result in some unusual circumstances at times, but it is necessary for the assessment of this course. Of course, you are welcome to change your financial plan to reflect the local taxation and retirement savings system after the course is completed.

Please only use Australian dollars as your currency for this assignment. You can convert any foreign values in Australian dollars at the current exchange rate.

Financial Assistance from Family

Some students may be expecting significant financial assistance from their families or a large inheritance from parents or grandparents after they graduate from their degrees (or later in life). This can undermine the learning outcomes assessed by the financial plan assessment because it can result in a financial strategy that basically argues, “I don’t need to do anything that this course covers because my family will provide me with everything that I need financially.”

You should undertake this assignment assuming that you will not receive significant financial assistance from your family or others after you graduate in the form of a large lump-sum payment, income support or gifts of property or other investments. However, you are permitted to assume that you can move back home to live with parents while you are saving for a deposit on your first property.

Students with disability may assume ongoing support (financial or otherwise) from family.

Religion and Interest

Some devoutly religious students may believe that either receiving or paying interest on borrowed funds (even under a profit-sharing arrangement using Islamic Banking) is incompatible with their religious faith. Inclusivity is important at UNSW and I personally have the utmost respect for these religious beliefs. However, being unable to borrow or lend at interest makes many of the financial strategies and products covered in this course unviable and can therefore make it difficult to assess the learning outcomes of the course. As such, if you hold these religious views, one approach that you can take with this financial plan assessment is to base it on a ‘hypothetical third-party’ (perhaps a friend) that is willing and able to borrow or lend money using Islamic Banking services under a suitable ‘profit sharing’ arrangement. Obviously, you are welcome to make appropriate changes to this financial plan document after submission to reflect your personal beliefs and your own preferred financial and investment strategies.

If you have further questions or would like to discuss an alternative approach, please contact meat [email protected]and I will be happy to discuss it further.

File Size

The maximum file size permitted by Moodle is 40MB. If your file is larger than this then it is most likely because you have used some high-resolution images. Please locate the super-high-res images in your document and downscale them. More on this here: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/reduce-the-file-size-of-a-picture-in-microsoft- office-8db7211c-d958-457c-babd-194109eb9535

Writing Style

This is your  financial plan and so an  informal  writing  style  is  acceptable  in  this assignment. You may write in the first-person if you would like to do so. You may also make selective use of bullet-points and tables where appropriate.

However, you are reminded that this is also an assessment for a university course. You are expected to justify your ideas by linking them back to concepts covered in the course or from other cited sources wherever possible.

As a general principle, it is not acceptable to justify statements in your financial plan as being true because you “feel that they are true” . For example, “I am going to invest all my money in Bitcoin because I feel as though this will be a good investment for the long-term.” This form of reasoning is generally not acceptable at university. If you believe that Bitcoin is a good investment for the long-term, you need to justify this with logical reasoning based on theories covered in this course and/or evidence from other sources (that are cited). You need to clearly explain your reasoning.

Structure and Content

You should  use the  Microsoft  Word template  provided  under  the ‘Financial  Plan’ section of the course website and use the same headings provided in that document.

The following instructions on the suggested content for each section are oriented towards a grade of somewhere between 65 to 80. If you are time-poor due to your workload in other courses or work commitments, you may choose to miss out some of the suggested components in each section. However, doing so may adversely affect your overall score. If you are aiming for a score above 80, you will need to reflect deeply on the  material  in  each  Unit  and  ‘go  the  extra  mile’  in applying  it  to  your future anticipated circumstances. This may involve including content in each section that is not included in these instructions (at your own initiative). The key thing is to balance your  expectations  for  this   assignment  with   your  time-constraints   due  to  other commitments.

Please also note that the content suggested here is far too much to complete in the week before the financial plan is due. This assessment is designed to be written each week as you work through the course material. It is designed to encourage you to think deeply about the concepts covered in each Unit and to apply it to your own life. In some ways  it  is  like  a  journal. You are supposed to study the  content  of a  Unit,  then immediately apply that content to your own life by writing up the relevant sections of your financial plan.

Your financial plan should contain the following sections and content:

Title Page

The  Microsoft  Word  template  provided  contains  the  following  table.  You  should complete the information in the space provided (deleting the hint text):

Student ID:	Replace this text with your UNSW student zID
Given name	Replace this text with your given name (UNSW student records)
Family name	Replace this text with your family name (UNSW student records)
Degree program	What degree are you currently studying?
Country	In what country do you plan to live most of your life?
Word count	Replace this text with your assignment word count

Check the student declaration to confirm that the assessment is your own work. A table of contents is provided. You can update the page numbers as follows:

1.  Use your mouse to select the table of contents on page 1

2.  Go to the ‘References’ tab on the command bar at the top of Microsoft Word

3.  Select ‘Update Table’ under the ‘Table of Contents’ group on the Ribbon.

4.  Select ‘Update Page Numbers Only’ to only update the page numbers or select ‘Update Entire Table’ to also update your Headings.

Failing to update page numbers in the table of contents before final submission will result in a penalty (see Assessment Criteria on page30).

1. Current Situation (Unit 1)

This section is a statement of your current situation. It provides a starting point for assessing the gap between your current situation and the long-term goals that you will establish in section 2 of your financial plan. When financial advisers provide advice to clients, listing the client’s current situation is a key component of a Statement of Advice because it demonstrates that the adviser understands the client’s current situation correctly.

This section can be formatted using a combination of tables and bullet-points if you believe that this is a clear way to present the information. It does not need to be presented as full sentences in a paragraph form.

The  information  is  private  and  confidential  and  will not be  used  for  research  or commercial purposes. For more information in privacy of your information, please refer to the section on ‘Privacy’ on page7.

This section should include the following information:

Basic Information