Other Personal Finance Simulation FAQ's(formerly Mimic Personal Finance)

If I set the first payday to today and my students don't register until later in the week, will they still receive that payday?

Since the sim started today, any students that will be added (registered) in the course any time in the week will be paid their salary automatically when the instructor “verifies” the students.

 

Is there a retirement savings component to the simulation?

The teacher can create a 401K savings goal, and even give it a penalty when the student withdraws funds from it. However, there is no way for it to be interest bearing.

 

How do I change the attendance fine?

You will need to do it manually every time.

 

Do students receive their deposit back if they don't get the apartment? Or would the teacher have to do the money transfer manually?

The deposit money isn’t withdrawn unless the student is approved. If they are denied, no money is taken so no money needs to be refunded.

 

Are the stocks in the simulation real, made up, or history of a real stock?

They are based on real companies. 15 years of historical data have been compressed into 1 year. Then historical events from the companies' past were used as indicators of potential change and those are what gets posted in the "news feed."

 

My students are interested in buying stock in other classes. We can not find a button to do so. What are we doing wrong?

Students can't buy stocks in other classes.

 

Are taxes also withheld for bonuses that are on the paystub?

Everything that shows up on the paystub has taxes withheld. Anything deposited directly to the checking account does not.

 

We can't find the money awarded to when we played life happens. Where is it?

That Life Happens event automatically lowers the student’s Student Loan by $5000 (or any amount that’s set for that event). So, you would not see any deposit for that one.

 

Are students able to change their financial goals after making them and move on in the simulation?

Once a budget is accepted and money is transferred, the budget is done for the week.

Students can always go into their various accounts and move the money around anyway they want, but once it is accepted on the dashboard, it gets transferred at that moment. The following week/pay period, the students can then make a new budget.

 

How do you remove a vehicle purchase from a student’s account?

  1. Go to “Class Culture” → Car Dealership” and click on the “Delete” button located next to the car in question.

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  2. Once you click that button, you will have a choice to remove the owner. That way you can remove that user’s ownership from the car and the down payment should be refunded to the user’s checking account.

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My students are not seeing the option for buying a redraw for life happens. Are they only allowed to buy so many over a time period?

You will need to check the store's inventory to see if there are any left! Students often buy out those redraws, so the teacher should go to the store, click the pencil icon to the left of the Redraws, and restock the item.

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