Personal Management Merit Badge Clinic Agenda

Here is a requirement by requirement agenda, and some suggestions of things you can do in advance and come prepared to have signed off.

1. Plan a major purchase.

   This requirement includes preparing a written plan for how you and your family will make a major purchase.  Hopefully, you'll save and pay cash.  But if you use credit, you need a plan to pay it off.  The plan must be written.  It's too easy to go into long-term debt if you say "close enough," instead of writing things down and doing the math.
   

2. Prepare a written budget. Follow it for 13 weeks. Come back prepared to discuss adjustments you had to make to keep your budget in balance.  (Things never go exactly as planned.) 

   We'll discuss in the clinic some of the ways you can do this.   There are many ways of keeping a budget.  An important concept that is surprisingly missing from the merit badge pamplet is the "zero-based budget," where you "spend you money in advance on paper."  An Excell spreadsheet is the first choice for 21st century kids.  A lower-tech solution is cash in envelopes labeled with the purpose of the money they contain. (The merit badge requires something in writing, so you'll have to keep the envelopes in mind as an easier solution for later.) Figuring out what categories to use to break down spending is the hard part. 

   Read the merit badge pamphlet and come prepared with an example of how you will do this requirement.  We need to make sure your way will work so you don't waste 13 weeks.   I'll have a computer so you can bring a spreadsheet on a flash drive.
   

3. Discuss with your merit badge counselor FIVE of the following concepts:  We'll try to touch on all of them as a class, then ask for Scout's honor if you understand five so we can sign off the requirement.  We'll learn a lot from discussing these together.


4. We'll have another group discussion on the following items.  Just like school, it is best to read the merit badge pamphlet in advance to prepare for the discussion.
1. Difference between saving and investing.
2. Return on investment and risk.
3. The concepts of simple and compound interest.


5. It is hard to find stock listings in newspapers these days, but there are plenty of places to get stock quotes on the Internet.  I like Yahoo finance myself.  Bring a newspaper or printouts from your favorite Web site showing the required information on your five favorite stocks.  The requirement asks for the current price, the change from the previous day, and 52 week high and low.  Personally, I like to check the graphs of performance over the last 3 years and comparison with the S&P 500.  The Web has this information on stocks easily available.
   


6. How would you invest $1000?  We'll discuss the advantages and disadvantages of:
1. stocks
2. mutual funds
3. life insurance
4. savings accost or certificate of deposit
5. U.S. savings bonds


7. We'll have a group discussion to make sure you know about borrowing money.  (Hint: Borrowing is no substitute for having or saving your own money, except in rare cases involving going into business.)  We will discuss:
   
1. What a loan is, what interest is, and how the annual percentage rate (APR) measures the true cost of a loan.
2. Different ways to borrow money.
3. Difference between a charge card, debit card, and credit card.
   
4. Credit reports and credit scores.
   
5. Ways to reduce or eliminate debt.


8. Most of you keep some sort of planner to help you remember and prioritize you school assignments.  This requirement asks you to expand that to include other chores, duties, and extra-curricular activities.  Kids are busy these days.  Hopefully by writing everything down and prioritizing you'll be able to feel "on top" of your game, instead of struggling to complete things at the last minute.


9. This requirement sounds like practice for your Eagle project.  Perhaps instead of a pretend project on paper, you can use this requirement for a group project at school.  A group project at school has a well-defined goal and due date.  It has people with differing talents and busy schedules.  It probably has money, even if its just a small amount of "office supplies."  The written plan is the important part.

   “I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” - Dwight D. Eisenhower

10. You have probably done a "career unit" in school where you have researched a possible career, including the educational/training requirements.  This will be a good ice breaker as we begin our merit badge clinic.  Be prepared to share.