MGMT 168
Personal Financial Health: Theory and Practice
Description: Lecture, three hours. Helps develop class of financially literate students who will be financially secure today and in future. Students gain knowledge, skills, and confidence to take charge of their financial futures and have potential to prosper. Covers many financial decisions made by entrepreneurs. Interplay between financial conditions of business and financial situation of owner is something that many entrepreneurs fail to plan for when they launch new business. Specific topics covered include budgeting, time value of money, installment purchases, protection of assets, principles of investing, retirement and estate planning, psychology of money, income taxes, banking, and credit. Topics from behavioral finance include suboptimal spending, mistakes investors make, and money and happiness. Letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2022 - This class has been my most useful, most practical, and one of my favorite classes at UCLA so far! I highly recommend this class to any student as Professor Shawn teaches useful personal finance topics, and the assignments are actually relevant to your everyday life, very eye-opening, and relatively short (less than 1 hour per week of work). Each assignment is due by the beginning of the next class (you have an entire week to do it), and he is totally chill with you showing up late to class. Attendance and participation are counted toward your grade, though I was very interested in the material, asked a lot of questions, and therefore got a good participation grade in the class. Professor Shawn himself is a private wealth manager and went to UCLA for both his undergrad and his MBA. Therefore, he has a lot of relevant and relatable experiences as a UCLA student, and frequently brings in and uses these experiences in his teachings, such as when we learned about credit cards, insurance, and financing/leasing cars. He is a very friendly and approachable dude and was always open to meeting outside of class to talk about anything. When I mentioned I was interested in PM, he introduced me to his business school friend and paved the way for me to have a great conversation with him. Professor Shawn really cares about his students! The only downside of this class is that was one 3-hour long seminar each wee, which was difficult to focus in during the end. He would teach for an hour, then give up a 15-minute break to do whatever we wanted (I usually went on a walk outside during this time). We would then return with him teaching for the two hours remaining. It was difficult to focus during the second hour, especially when I was tired from little sleep the night before. In terms of enrollment, he is very generous in giving out PTEs. Don't be fooled by the strict enrollment standards on myUCLA, anyone can take this class! I actually reached out to him on LinkedIn (since he is a private wealth manager, he has a very detailed LinkedIn) and messaged him about joining the class. He said he didn't have any space in the room but takes as many people as fit in the classroom. A month later, he messaged me out of the blue saying he got a bigger classroom and offered a PTE code to me! Here was the LinkedIn connection message I sent him that eventually got me the code. Feel free to use it! " Hello Shawn, I heard about your personal management class at UCLA, MGMT 168, from my accounting TA and am very interested in taking it this upcoming fall. Besides personal interest, I'm a member of UCLA MoneyThink (where we teach high school seniors financial literacy), so taking this course would help me be a better mentor. However, I'm a rising sophomore and have not yet entered the entrepreneurship minor (I plan on applying in Fall 2022), so I am unable to enroll in the class currently. Can I enroll in the course later if there are spots available? Thanks! Best, [my name] " Here is a breakdown of the course material and assignments: Week 1: Budgeting and Cash flow → Create a monthly budget based on your past year of expenses, then track your expenses against your budget for the next 2 months (report to be done at the end of the quarter) Week 2: Time Value of Money, Credit, and Debt → Research three credit cards and savings accounts, then recommend one for yourself based on your personal life factors (also run a credit report) Week 3: Auto financing → Research financing and leasing the exact same car, then write a report about what you learned Week 4: Home financing → find a home in your planned living location in the future, analyzing the mortgage and other expected costs of home ownership Week 5: Equity investing → Choose a stock and predict its price after its upcoming earnings report based on factors learned in class (correct predictions equal extra credit!) Week 6: Debt investing (bonds) → no assignment Week 7: Insurance (you apparently can insure pretty much anything) → no assignment Week 8: Retirement Planning → no assignment, though can begin working on the final project Week 9: Life Insurance/Estate Planning → research term vs universal life insurance and write a report about what you'd recommend for yourself and what you learned Week 10/Finals: The final project is a 40-year financial plan, from the beginning of your career until your retirement. You should use all of the knowledge, skills, and tools you learned during the course. The professor is very helpful in completing this if you reach out. The project is worth 35 points, with the presentation to the class being another 15. Each assignment is graded from 6-10/10, with the following distribution: Bottom 10% of the class on the assignment: 6/10 10-30th percentile of the class on the assignment: 7/10 30-70th percentile of the class on the assignment: 8/10 70-90th percentile of the class on the assignment: 9/10 Top 10% of the class: 10/10 Therefore, the class is curved relative to other students, but ~50% of the class ends up getting A's. I got 9s and 10s on every assignment with about an hour of work per assignment, sometimes a little bit more, sometimes a little bit less. It's easy to get an A in this class if you actually care and put in some effort. Overall, I would recommend this class to every UCLA student!
Fall 2022 - This class has been my most useful, most practical, and one of my favorite classes at UCLA so far! I highly recommend this class to any student as Professor Shawn teaches useful personal finance topics, and the assignments are actually relevant to your everyday life, very eye-opening, and relatively short (less than 1 hour per week of work). Each assignment is due by the beginning of the next class (you have an entire week to do it), and he is totally chill with you showing up late to class. Attendance and participation are counted toward your grade, though I was very interested in the material, asked a lot of questions, and therefore got a good participation grade in the class. Professor Shawn himself is a private wealth manager and went to UCLA for both his undergrad and his MBA. Therefore, he has a lot of relevant and relatable experiences as a UCLA student, and frequently brings in and uses these experiences in his teachings, such as when we learned about credit cards, insurance, and financing/leasing cars. He is a very friendly and approachable dude and was always open to meeting outside of class to talk about anything. When I mentioned I was interested in PM, he introduced me to his business school friend and paved the way for me to have a great conversation with him. Professor Shawn really cares about his students! The only downside of this class is that was one 3-hour long seminar each wee, which was difficult to focus in during the end. He would teach for an hour, then give up a 15-minute break to do whatever we wanted (I usually went on a walk outside during this time). We would then return with him teaching for the two hours remaining. It was difficult to focus during the second hour, especially when I was tired from little sleep the night before. In terms of enrollment, he is very generous in giving out PTEs. Don't be fooled by the strict enrollment standards on myUCLA, anyone can take this class! I actually reached out to him on LinkedIn (since he is a private wealth manager, he has a very detailed LinkedIn) and messaged him about joining the class. He said he didn't have any space in the room but takes as many people as fit in the classroom. A month later, he messaged me out of the blue saying he got a bigger classroom and offered a PTE code to me! Here was the LinkedIn connection message I sent him that eventually got me the code. Feel free to use it! " Hello Shawn, I heard about your personal management class at UCLA, MGMT 168, from my accounting TA and am very interested in taking it this upcoming fall. Besides personal interest, I'm a member of UCLA MoneyThink (where we teach high school seniors financial literacy), so taking this course would help me be a better mentor. However, I'm a rising sophomore and have not yet entered the entrepreneurship minor (I plan on applying in Fall 2022), so I am unable to enroll in the class currently. Can I enroll in the course later if there are spots available? Thanks! Best, [my name] " Here is a breakdown of the course material and assignments: Week 1: Budgeting and Cash flow → Create a monthly budget based on your past year of expenses, then track your expenses against your budget for the next 2 months (report to be done at the end of the quarter) Week 2: Time Value of Money, Credit, and Debt → Research three credit cards and savings accounts, then recommend one for yourself based on your personal life factors (also run a credit report) Week 3: Auto financing → Research financing and leasing the exact same car, then write a report about what you learned Week 4: Home financing → find a home in your planned living location in the future, analyzing the mortgage and other expected costs of home ownership Week 5: Equity investing → Choose a stock and predict its price after its upcoming earnings report based on factors learned in class (correct predictions equal extra credit!) Week 6: Debt investing (bonds) → no assignment Week 7: Insurance (you apparently can insure pretty much anything) → no assignment Week 8: Retirement Planning → no assignment, though can begin working on the final project Week 9: Life Insurance/Estate Planning → research term vs universal life insurance and write a report about what you'd recommend for yourself and what you learned Week 10/Finals: The final project is a 40-year financial plan, from the beginning of your career until your retirement. You should use all of the knowledge, skills, and tools you learned during the course. The professor is very helpful in completing this if you reach out. The project is worth 35 points, with the presentation to the class being another 15. Each assignment is graded from 6-10/10, with the following distribution: Bottom 10% of the class on the assignment: 6/10 10-30th percentile of the class on the assignment: 7/10 30-70th percentile of the class on the assignment: 8/10 70-90th percentile of the class on the assignment: 9/10 Top 10% of the class: 10/10 Therefore, the class is curved relative to other students, but ~50% of the class ends up getting A's. I got 9s and 10s on every assignment with about an hour of work per assignment, sometimes a little bit more, sometimes a little bit less. It's easy to get an A in this class if you actually care and put in some effort. Overall, I would recommend this class to every UCLA student!
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - This class did not fulfill any major requirements for me-- I just took it because I wanted to learn about finance. I'm pretty disappointed to say that I didn't learn too much. This class goes over a broad range of topics (buying a house, car insurance, credit cards, stock market, etc.) The thing is that each week/lesson goes into something new, and no topic is given enough depth, so in the end you learn such little information that you might have been better off just looking it up online. He teaches each new topic by bringing in a guest speaker who works in the field, but the only thing is that many of the guest speakers aren't teachers and some of them really didn't seem that prepared to give a lecture. You feel like you're in some random presentation or even a marketing pitch for their company as opposed to an actual class where you're learning practical information. Also, he computed the grades in such a way that even if you got an A based on points alone, you would not necessarily get an A in the class. The syllabus does not tell you how he will grade the class, it does not tell you how much any of the assignments or projects are worth, you don't know anything until you get the grade. I really thought I was doing fine in the class until I got a B+ at the end (for reference, I've never gotten anything lower than an A- in any other class at all 4 years of university, even much harder classes like computing or chemistry) I will say that there was a few highlights where I did learn something I considered valuable. Additionally, the professor does seem to be really caring and passionate about the class. But if you want to take it and it's not a requirement for your major, I would take it pass/no pass.
Winter 2020 - This class did not fulfill any major requirements for me-- I just took it because I wanted to learn about finance. I'm pretty disappointed to say that I didn't learn too much. This class goes over a broad range of topics (buying a house, car insurance, credit cards, stock market, etc.) The thing is that each week/lesson goes into something new, and no topic is given enough depth, so in the end you learn such little information that you might have been better off just looking it up online. He teaches each new topic by bringing in a guest speaker who works in the field, but the only thing is that many of the guest speakers aren't teachers and some of them really didn't seem that prepared to give a lecture. You feel like you're in some random presentation or even a marketing pitch for their company as opposed to an actual class where you're learning practical information. Also, he computed the grades in such a way that even if you got an A based on points alone, you would not necessarily get an A in the class. The syllabus does not tell you how he will grade the class, it does not tell you how much any of the assignments or projects are worth, you don't know anything until you get the grade. I really thought I was doing fine in the class until I got a B+ at the end (for reference, I've never gotten anything lower than an A- in any other class at all 4 years of university, even much harder classes like computing or chemistry) I will say that there was a few highlights where I did learn something I considered valuable. Additionally, the professor does seem to be really caring and passionate about the class. But if you want to take it and it's not a requirement for your major, I would take it pass/no pass.
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