. Identify the values that are most important to you. This part of the assignment in Week 1. Next, identify at least 3 financial goals you have. Be specific about the goals (SMART goals). These should be short-term (less than a year), intermediate- term (2-5 years) and long-term (more than 5 years). As you go through the exercise you will be expected to relate your choice of financial products to you values and goals (if they don’t align – which is common! – that is okay, it’s part of the lesson).
2. Conduct research into financial products which relate to your values and goals. The products you select should match your goals and values. For example, if your values relate to environmental issues and your goal is to invest for 10 years, then you could investigate environmentally friendly mutal funds. Another option is if your values relate to technology and your goal involves budgeting, you could research different financial apps which help make financial decisions. If your values relate to efficient use of money, then you could investigate low fee credit cards.
3. After your research, you will identify two financial products for comparison. It is best to compare two products which are used for the same purpose (e.g. two credit cards) but offer different features. Create a table of criteria which compares different features of both financial products.
4. Analyse the differences and prepare a synopsis. This synopsis should reflect on all aspects of the assignment. Here you should compare your goals and values, features of the financial products, and then outline one that you would choose and why.
5. Create an infographic to compare and present these differences to a lay person. When you have completed your research, you have gained expert knowledge. However, the purpose of the infographic is to convert this expert knowledge into an easy-to-understand format for another person. Infographics work best when you use data to tell stories. Thus, you should present information using figures, quotes and diagrams of information. A good website to use is www.Piktochart.com (you do not need to pay for their service, just use the free version). More details of creating infographics will be available on the course website. Make sure you reference all of your information.
6. The final assignment should be no more than 2-3 pages of written text and an accompanying image. Your written text should outline your goals and values; your table comparing two financial products and your synopsis. The accompanying image is your infographic which should be submitted as one image. This image can be longer than an A4 page, where the grader will scroll down to see the entire image. A general rule with infographics is to limit the amount text on the page and present information using im
