Advanced Life-Cycle Finance

This capstone unit addresses advanced personal-finance decisions across major life events, long-term planning, and asset protection. Students synthesize prior learning to manage investment risk, prepare for retirement and financial independence, protect against fraud, and respond to taxes, audits, and unexpected windfalls.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze investment risks and recommend diversification and exit strategies for a given portfolio, including sizing risk, timing sales of funds, and balancing speculative bets
• Evaluate tax, insurance, and retirement options for specified life events (e.g., having children, divorce, caring for aging parents, receiving a windfall) and construct a written financial plan that addresses at least three scenarios
• Apply consumer-protection and identity-safeguarding practices by closing unnecessary accounts, initiating credit freezes or alerts, protecting mail and digital files, and removing sensitive data from checks
• Demonstrate the ability to assess financial professionals and business opportunities by critiquing investment firms and advisor claims, outlining steps to start and manage a small business, and preparing documentation for audits and post-purchase obligations