Touchstones are projects that illustrate your comprehension of the course materi

Touchstones are projects that illustrate your comprehension of the course material, help you refine skills, and demonstrate application of knowledge. You can work on a Touchstone anytime, but you can’t submit it until you have completed the unit’s Challenges. Once you’ve submitted a Touchstone, it will be graded and counted toward your final course score.
One way to check your progress towards your financial goals is to conduct a personal financial analysis. This will help you see how well you have stayed on track with your finances over time. Using technology can help you stay organized and help you visualize financial data, uncover trends, and effectively communicate your findings.
Your goal for this Touchstone is to build your confidence with technology. Using Microsoft Excel, you will organize three monthly budgets, visualize the data using graphs, and discuss the results. You’ll begin with the budget you created in Excel in the Unit 2 Touchstone. There are many types of technologies available for personal or professional use that can analyze and display personal financial data. Your experience with Excel spreadsheets in this course is a skill you can apply to other technology tools in your life and career. If you need a refresher on spreadsheets, review the tutorials in Unit 1, Challenge 3 of this course (Links are in Section D).
Touchstone 4: Analyzing Your Personal Finances
SCENARIO: Three months have passed since you created your first financial plan (i.e., the Unit 2 Touchstone). In that time, your budget has gone through some changes. The good news is that your income has increased because of your strong performance at work. However, health care and miscellaneous costs have gone up along with your earnings. You will need to reallocate your monthly budget based on these changes to see how you’re progressing toward your original savings goal.
While you appreciate numbers and figures, you also know that a strong financial analysis needs visual information. As part of your progress check, you’ve committed to creating a set of graphs that you can share with your financial advisor.
ASSIGNMENT: This assignment has two parts. In part 1, you will analyze personal finance data based on the scenario described above. You’ll use your problem solving and agility skills to balance three monthly budgets, and you’ll use your technology skill to graph the spending allocations in each of them. Finally, you’ll sharpen all three skills as you calculate and graph the progress you’re making toward your original savings goal.
In part 2, you will answer reflection questions about the decisions you made, identify how to create more savings opportunities, and make predictions about life and economic impacts that could affect the future of your plan.
For this assignment, you will:
Create three monthly budgets and perform a personal financial analysis using Microsoft Excel.
Summarize changes in expenditures between budgets.
Show the results of the analysis using appropriate graphs in Excel.
Explain how the graph types you have selected will help your financial advisor understand the data.
Discuss the results of the financial analysis including savings achievements, future budget modifications, and life impacts that could derail the budget in the coming year.
Reflect on what the analysis might reasonably look like in one year, accounting for economic factors such as inflation and the consumer price index.
Download the Excel template below, which further breaks down the steps involved in this assignment. You will return the completed template as your Touchstone submission.
Assignment Template
In order to foster learning and growth, all work you submit must be newly written specifically for this course. Any plagiarized or recycled work will result in a Plagiarism Detected alert. Review Touchstones: Academic Integrity Guidelines for more about plagiarism and the Plagiarism Detected alert. For guidance on the use of generative AI technology, review Ethical Standards and Appropriate Use of AI.
A. Assignment Guidelines
DIRECTIONS: Refer to the lists below throughout the assignment. Do not submit your Touchstone until it meets these guidelines.
1. Analyzing Your Personal Finances❒ Have you populated the tables for Month 1, Month 2, and Month 3 with your budgeting information?❒ Have you verified that all amounts are displayed on a monthly (not annual) basis?❒ Have you verified that the sum of your expenditures (including savings) equals your employment income?❒ Have you populated the Savings Progress table?❒ Have you selected the most effective graph type for each of your data sets?❒ Have you left all predetermined formulas intact?2. Reflection Questions❒ Have you directly answered each question that was asked?❒ Have you provided sufficient evidence to support each of your answers?❒ Have you made clear and logical connections between your conclusions and the data used in the financial analysis?❒ Have you leveraged content from the course tutorials about economic factors?❒ Have you included sufficient detail in your answers?B. Rubric
Advanced (100%)Proficient (85%)Acceptable (75%)Needs Improvement (50%)Non-Performance (0%)
Building Monthly Budgets (P1S1-P1S3) (20 points)
Create balanced budgets for Month 1, Month 2, and Month 3 using Excel’s formula feature and supplied data.All formulas are correct, income equals total expenditures, percentages are complete, and supplied data has been integrated. All values are realistic, and all units are displayed.Most formulas are correct, income equals total expenditures, percentages are mostly complete, and supplied data has been integrated. Most values are realistic, and all units are displayed.Some formulas are correct, income equals total expenditures, percentages are nearly complete, and supplied data has been integrated. Over half of the values are realistic, but not all units are displayed.Formulas were not used, income equals total expenditures, percentages are incomplete, and supplied data is missing. Only some values are realistic, but all units are displayed.Formulas were not used, income does not equal total expenditures, percentages are left blank, and supplied data is missing. Few values are realistic, and units are not displayed.
Creating Visuals (P1S4, P1S6) (20 points)
Graph expenditures for Month 1, Month 2, and Month 3, and graph the rate of savings over these three months.
All graphs are representative of the data tables and the axes are correctly labeled. The most effective graph type was chosen in all instances and cumulative savings shows an upward trend.Three to four graphs are representative of the data tables and the axes are correctly labeled. The most effective graph type was chosen in three to four instances and cumulative savings shows an upward trend.Two to three graphs are representative of the data tables and the axes are correctly labeled. The most effective graph type was chosen in two to three instances and cumulative savings shows an upward trend.One to two graphs are representative of the data tables, but the axes are not labeled. The most effective graph type was chosen in one to two instances and cumulative savings shows an upward trend.The graphs are not representative of the data tables and the axes are not labeled. The most effective graph type was chosen in only one instance and cumulative savings is trending incorrectly.
Measuring Savings Progress (P1Q3, P1Q4) (15 points)
Populate the Savings Progress table with savings per month, cumulative savings, and monthly shortages.
All the values for monthly savings match their respective data tables and monthly shortages are fully consistent with the original savings goal. Embedded formulas are present and accurate.All the values for monthly savings match their respective data tables and monthly shortages are mostly consistent with the original savings goal. Embedded formulas are present and mostly accurate.Two to three of the values for monthly savings match their respective data tables and monthly shortages are mostly consistent with the original savings goal. Embedded formulas are present and somewhat accurate.One to two of the values for monthly savings match their respective data tables but monthly shortages are not consistent with the original savings goal. Embedded formulas are present but inaccurate.Zero to one of the values for monthly savings matches its respective data table but monthly shortages are not consistent with the original savings goal. Embedded formulas are not present.
Choosing Graph Types (P2Q1) (15 points)
Give reasons for the graph types you selected for displaying expenditures and the savings rate. (150 words or less)
Rationale for choosing each graph type is thorough, evidence-based, and tightly connected to the tutorial content from the course.Rationale for choosing each graph type is mostly coherent, somewhat evidence-based, and largely connected to the tutorial content from the course.Rationale for choosing each graph type is somewhat coherent and evidence-based, but only loosely connected to the tutorial content from the course.Rationale for choosing each graph type is somewhat coherent and evidence-based, but no connections have been made to the tutorial content from the course.Rationale for choosing each graph type is incoherent, evidence is nonexistent, and no connections have been made to the tutorial content from the course.
Analyzing Results (P2Q2) 15 points)
Explain the results of your financial analysis in terms of progress, improvements, and anticipated derailments. (150 words or less)
Description of savings progress is exceptional, improvement plans are logical and attainable, and derailments are closely tied to real-world economic factors.Description of savings progress is well-written, improvement plans are logical and attainable, and derailments are largely tied to real-world economic factors. Description of savings progress is acceptably written, improvement plans are logical and mostly attainable, and derailments are only loosely tied to real-world economic factors. Description of savings progress is acceptably written, improvement plans are logical but not attainable, and derailments are only loosely tied to real-world economic factors.Description of savings progress is poorly written, improvement plans are illogical, and derailments are not tied to real-world economic factors. Anticipating Economic Projections (P2Q3) (15 points)
Looking ahead one year, describe how economic factors might impact the financial analysis and how you might plan for them. (150 words or less)
The economic factors chosen are based on reality and tightly connected to the tutorial content from the course. The one-year plan is described clearly, is attainable, and is entirely logical based on the economic factors described.The economic factors chosen are based on reality and largely connected to the tutorial content from the course. The one-year plan is described clearly, is attainable, and is mostly logical based on the economic factors described.The economic factors chosen are mostly based on reality and sufficiently connected to the tutorial content from the course. The one-year plan is described sufficiently, is attainable, and is mostly logical based on the economic factors described.The economic factors chosen are loosely based on reality and somewhat connected to the tutorial content from the course. The one-year plan is described sufficiently but is not attainable or logical, based on the economic factors described.The economic factors chosen are not based on reality and are not connected to the tutorial content from the course. The one-year plan is described poorly, is not attainable, and is illogical based on the economic factors described.
C. Requirements
The following requirements must be met for your submission to be graded:
Abide by the word count limits where applicable. No answer should exceed 150 words.
Use a readable 11-point font.
All writing and data entries must be appropriate for an academic context.
Writing must be original and customized for this assignment.
Plagiarism of any kind is strictly prohibited.
Submission must include your name and the date.
Include all the assignment components in a single file.
Acceptable file formats include .xls and .xlsx.
D. Additional Resources
The following resources will be helpful to you as you work on this assignment:
Spreadsheet Basics
Computing with Spreadsheets
Data Visualization