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The Financial Planning and Investment Case Study / Project
This case study is designed for the student to demonstrate their knowledge of the six course
outcomes of this Financial Planning and Investment course. Therefore, each requirement’s intent
is to further your understanding of the many facets of financial planning and investing.
Case Study: How to reach a financial goal of $350K by age 65 with $50K
Your uncle wants you to learn how financial planning and investing can secure your financial
future, so he is giving you $50K dollars in cash to start your financial investment. However, with
this gift of $50K cash, he has the following stipulations:
- It can only be invested in financial investment forms
- It cannot be withdrawn until you reach retirement at 65 years of age
- The $50K must be invested in four different financial investments that can accumulate an
additional value of $20,000 in the next 10 years ($70,000). Your paper should
concentrate on this long-term planning goal of achieving $20,000 in the next 10 years.
Case Study Requirements:
As stated in the stipulations, each student is to choose four different financial investment
planning opportunities of their choice and invest any specific amount (remember, the total
amount must equal $50K) they want in each different investment opportunity that will help them
secure their individual retirement investment goals ($350K) when they each reach the age of 65.
This financial plan and investment strategy is for the long-term period of 10 years with the goal
of increasing your initial investment from $50,000 to $70, 000.
In addition to your uncle’s stipulations, one of the investment opportunities must include one or
more of the three most widely followed indexes in the U.S. (the S&P 500, Dow Jones
Industrial Average, and Nasdaq Composite) and the other opportunities must be some sort of
financial growth opportunity for investments in:
- Certificate of Deposits
- Mutual Funds or Growth funds, Commodities, ETFs
- Housing Market
- Bond Market
- Annuities
- IRA or 401K opportunities
- Options
Your Case Study Research Paper (RP) must be in submitted in Microsoft Word format, proper
APA style: Times Roman New font 12 point, double spaced, and 10-pages minimum in length.
The paper must highlight the investments as outlined above and demonstrate how those
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investments will achieve your future investment goal of ($70K) in the next 10 years. Students
must be detailed in why they have chosen their four different investments opportunities /
financial investments and detail what the financial prospectus for each investment will be every
10-years that the funds are invested in these financial opportunities (a 10-year financial growth
plan analysis).
Each paper must include:
- Executive Summary explaining what investments you are choosing and why this choice
of each investment will help you achieve your financial security goal at age 65. This
should also include a financial outlook for the future and the amount of financial risk you
will assume for this investment. The executive summary will also include contingency
plans for each financial investment if the future outcome projection for the investment
suffers substantial losses in the long-term. This summary must also include how you will
pay the assessed taxes (federal, state) for capital gains from these investments. Further
consideration should be given to how you will transfer the wealth accumulated from
these financial planning investments, should an unexpected death occur with the investor.
To achieve this financial goal ($70K), the investor may also have to add additional
funding annually to their financial investment planned account, explain how you would
plan to budget to contribute to these accounts annually to achieve your total financial
investment goal ($350K) by age 65. - The research paper must clearly demonstrate your understanding of setting financial
planning and investment goals, and how making good financial decisions depends upon:
a. Understanding how the economy works
b. How money is made in the economy
c. How money flows in the economy
d. How investments are made depending on the financial make-up and the present
status of the economy
e. Developing flexible personal financial plans that can be adjusted on the economic
concerns of the present economy
f. Adjusting to economic risks
g. Protecting your personal financial assets against financial loss - Students must complete a thorough financial analysis on the companies they chose to
invest their money in the stock market indexes. A detailed analysis must be included in
the research paper that includes their financial investment analysis to include “Results of
their company’s Ratio Analysis” (Chapter 3) and how this analysis was used in helping to
chose what company to invest their money in financially, according to what the analysis
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yielded, and what the 10-year future forecast of the company is from research conducted
in their choice. (Company prospectus) - Students must also reflect their understanding of being adaptive in their financial
planning and investments in their paper with an “alternative financial plan” that reflects
“what if” changes in the nation’s economy. A thorough understanding of this must be
explained and reflected in the research paper. - This research paper must be written in your own words, plagiarism is not acceptable.
When referencing direct quotes, references are required. - Your paper must include a conclusion section of at least 500 words. The conclusion
should detail the concepts learned in this class (see Rubric for details), and how their
proposal of their investments will help them reach the goal of their future financial
investments. Additionally, a brief explanation as to how planning for this paper may help
you in your future retirement endeavors. - Paper is due Saturday, November 27, 2021, at 11:59 pm
- Paper is worth 130 points total (13% of final grade)
- Rubric used for grading focuses on the 6 course learning outcomes:
- Identify and define the process for making personal financial decisions.
- Describe how taxes affect personal financial planning.
- Recognize methods of risk management by assessing personal health, disability, and
life insurance needs. - Recommend investment strategies appropriate to achievement of short-term,
intermediate, and long-term financial goals. - Describe the fundamental characteristics of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and real
estate as investment tools appropriate to attainment of financial goals. - Identify the financial and legal aspects of estate planning.
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