This article will show a breakdown of the feedback given in Personal Finance Simulation(formerly Mimic Personal Finance), along with some tips of where to look for places to improve.
Dashboard
When you log into your Personal Finance Simulation, the Dashboard is what shows first. This is where a general view of your Financial Health can be found.
- Your "Budget Equation" is a breakdown of your most recent paycheck. This shows your gross earnings, taxes, monthly living expenses, the total amount needed to pay your bills, as well as your goals and how much money you set aside for each one.
- The "Account Balances" show what your current balances are in each account. This will show positive as well as negative balances.
- The "Balance Sheet" summary shows a quick list of each Asset and each Liability that affects your overall Net Worth. Your Net Worth will always be your Assets minus your Liabilities.
- The "Credit Monitoring" section helps show what is affecting your credit score. Each type of credit has a different percentage of the total credit score it affects. This can be seen as a percentage next to each section's title. The various credit types are as follows:
- Absences and Tardies as well as bad grades
- Being behind on payments or missing payments
- High debt to income ratios
- High credit usage with low payoff
- The "Spending Analysis" pie chart shows how your budget has been used to date. This includes all payments made from all paychecks and shows where most of your budget is being spent.
Balance Sheet
Under the tab "Money Management", is the "Balance Sheet" page. This page will break down the information from the Dashboard into slightly more detail. This is also the page where you can pay your bills.
- The "Payment Performance" section at the top of the page shows a percentage on how well you have paid your bills for each paycheck. This will drop from 100% for missed or late payments. Complete payments made during a grace period will not negatively impact your performance.
- Your "Total Assets" are all of your accounts added together. This also includes the value of any homes or cars you own, as well as your stocks current value.
- Your "Total Liabilities" are all of your current bills, loans, and mortgages added together.
- "Cash Assets" are the current total of all of your cash accounts combined. This total does not include the value of any homes or cars you own.
- The "Credits and Bills" are an itemized list of every bill you have currently as well as any bills you have paid in full. This is also where you will make payments towards your bills.
- The "Stocks" section shows how many of each stock you own and how much they are worth. This does not showcase, however, if the stock prices have increased or decreased since the time you purchased them.
- If you have a student loan, the "Student Loan" section will show how much you have left to pay off. It will also have the option to make the monthly payment as well as a payment to directly pay towards the total loan amount instead without paying on the interest.
- "Real Estate Assets" shows the total worth of your purchased home as well as a breakdown of your loan details. Rented spaces do not appear under Assets.
- The "Mortgages" will show the monthly costs of owning or renting a living space.
- "Owned Vehicles" shows the values of your cars, a breakdown of any loan details, as well as the MPG for each vehicle. The MPG affects the monthly variable cost for gas added to your bills when you purchase a vehicle.
- The "Auto Loans" show the monthly payments and costs of owning a vehicle you bought with a loan.
Tips and Tricks
- Keep in mind that low assets and high liabilities can cause your net worth to be negative if you are not careful. This does not however, affect your worth as a human being. 😊
While the Stukent Support team is happy to assist with technical support, we are not finance experts. Generally, questions about best practices with Personal Finance should be directed back to your course instructor for best guidance.
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