The Personal Financial Manager (PFM) assists Marines in improving proficiency in managing personal finances. The PFM meets with individuals and couples to develop techniques to manage monthly and annual income and expenses. Techniques include tracking daily expenses. Results are used to make budget decisions and to develop a spending plan to execute the budget. Credit management is key to the plan. The PFM conducts instruction in savings and investments, buying cars and homes, saving for children's educations, retirement and estate planning, health and life insurance, and digging out of credit problems. Monthly workshops at Henderson Hall. Individual appointments are encouraged.

The objective of this four part class is to help a beginning investor acquire a basic understanding of the investments, their returns, and their risk, such that the person will be more confident, and more likely to take the first steps to becoming a successful, life-long investor. 

• Part 1 starts with the basic questions of the difference between saving and investing, compound interest & rates of return, and the characteristics of stocks, bonds and mutual funds that makes them suitable as investments. 
  
  
• Part 2 links the hoped for rise in prices of stocks and mutual funds to the realities of the business and stock market cycles.  An understanding of the relationship is key to managing short and long term risk in investments, and to achieving a high rate of turn, with acceptable risk, over the long term.  Part 2 also describes how stocks are listed indexes, by sectors of the market, as “growth” or “value” stocks, and as aggressive and conservative investments. 
  
  
• Part 3 focuses on the nature of risk in investments, and specifically, risk in mutual funds.  Part 3 includes a discussion of the role of the mutual fund manager, and information easily available on the Internet that helps investors determine which managers consistently achieve a high return with acceptable risk and acceptable expenses. 
  
  
• Part 4 distinguishes between (1) historical investments which result in capital gains (or losses) and capital gains taxes and (2) tax-advantaged investments such as the TSP, IRAs, and 401(k)’s that are the foundation of retirement plans.  Part 4 includes a discussion of load funds and no-load funds, purchasing and selling a mutual fund, strategies for investing for the long-haul, and most importantly, determining an investor’s tolerance for risk.