Invidual Assessment – Report (Personal cash flow statement)

Assessment 1 is an individual assessment that provides a foundational tool in personal finance. It also allows you to reflect on your behaviour and provides an opportunity to comment on ways to improve. This exercise will cover over four weeks and students are encouraged to commence as soon as the semester begins.

Objective: Record personal expenses over four (4) weeks and prepare a cash flow statement (for the month) as a tool for reflective assessment of personal spending habits.

You are to record your daily expenses over four weeks in an excel spreadsheet or any relevant budgeting application. The categories must include the following:

You should have at least 10 different description categories (e.g. holidays, meals, Petrol, etc.) but no more than 20. More categories would provide better insight to your spending habits. Your expenses should be presented in a pie chart and summary table as follows (example),

You are only recording your expenses for the month. However, you may multiply this by 12 months to give you a projected spending for the year. This may make it easier for you to ascertain your surplus/deficit position.

You should include three components in your report. First, the pie chart and summary table as above (please attach your original expense record either from your excel spreadsheet or data collection tool as an appendix); Second, the personal cash flow statement (please refer to Lecture 3 for more details); Third, an analysis of your personal cash flow statement (500 words). Your analysis should cover a discussion of your surplus/deficit position, nature of your major expenses, your experience of the exercise and your strategy for improving your cash flow position.

You do not need to record your income. However, to determine your surplus/deficit position, you will need an estimation. For some students, this may be income from your job or for others, allowance from parents.