A Plain Language Guide To Personal Financial Planning

Abstract

This book on personal finance is designed to equip you with the skills and information you need to create and implement a personal financial plan to achieve your goals. It strives to maintain a balance between academic rigor and practical application. The book is organized into five modules: Introduction to financial planning; Personal financial planning foundation; Credit and banking; Financing major purchases; Investing and retirement planning. Each module contains two to three chapters. Each chapter provides learning objectives to explain what you will learn, exercises and examples to illustrate important concepts, a chapter summary, and end of chapter questions. Some chapters include downloadable spreadsheet templates. An integrated case featuring a young couple demonstrates each step of the financial planning process. At the end of each chapter is a personal financial plan assignment that will help you build your own personal financial plan as you progress through the book. This is an Open Educational Resource; the most current version is available at https://pressbooks.salemstate.edu/personalfinance/. This version of the book in the digital repository is from September 2025.