Personal Management
Merit Badge Workbook
This workbook can help you but you still need to read the merit badge pamphlet.
This Workbook can help you organize your thoughts as you prepare to meet with your merit badge counselor. You still must satisfy your counselor that you can demonstrate each skill and have learned the information.
You should use the work space provided for each requirement to keep track of which requirements have been completed,
and to make notes for discussing the item with your counselor, not for providing full and complete answers.
If a requirement says that you must take an action using words such as "discuss", "show",
"tell", "explain", "demonstrate", "identify", etc, that is what you must do.
Merit Badge Counselors may not require the use of this or any similar workbooks.
No one may add or subtract from the official requirements found in Scouts BSA Requirements (Pub. 33216 – SKU 653801). The requirements were last issued or revised in 2019 • This workbook was updated in September 2020.
Scout’s Name:__________________________________________ Unit: __________________________________________
Counselor’s Name: ____________________ Phone No.: _______________________ Email: _________________________
http://www.USScouts.Org • http://www.MeritBadge.Org
Please submit errors, omissions, comments or suggestions about this workbook to: Workbooks@USScouts.Org
Comments or suggestions for changes to the requirements for the merit badge should be sent to: Merit.Badge@Scouting.Org
_________________ ___________________________ _________ ____________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____
1.Do the following:
a.Choose an item that your family might want to purchase that is considered a major expense.
b.Write a plan that tells how your family would save money for the purchase identified in requirement 1a.
1. Discuss the plan with your merit badge counselor.
Workbook © Copyright 2020 - U.S. Scouting Service Project, Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Requirements © Copyright, Boy Scouts of America (Used with permission.)
This workbook may be reproduced and used locally by Scouts and Scouters for purposes consistent with the programs of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) or other Scouting and Guiding Organizations.
However it may NOT be used or reproduced for electronic redistribution or for commercial or other non-Scouting purposes without
the express permission of the U. S. Scouting Service Project, Inc. (USSSP).
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Scout's Name: ____ ____ ________ _____ |
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Discuss the plan with your family. |
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3. Discuss how other family needs must be considered in this plan.
c. Develop a written shopping strategy for the purchase identified in requirement la.
1. Determine the quality of the item or service (using consumer publications or ratings systems).
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Scout's Name: ___________ ____________ |
2.Comparison shop for the item. Find out where you can buy the item for the best price. (Provide prices from at least two different price sources.)
Call around; study ads. Look for a sale or discount coupon. Consider alternatives.
Can you buy the item used?
Should you wait for a sale?
2.Do the following:
c a. Prepare a budget reflecting your expected income (allowance, gifts, wages), expenses, and savings for a period of
13consecutive weeks
(There is a blank Sample Budget Plan table to set up a budget, summarize actual income nd expenses, and compare them monthly at the end of this workbook, with a partially completed example.)
c b. Compare expected income with expected expenses.
1.If expenses exceed budget income, determine steps to balance your budget.
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Scout's Name: ___________ ____________ |
2. If income exceeds budget expenses, state how you would use the excess money (new goal, savings).
3.Track and record your actual income, expenses, and savings for 13 consecutive weeks (the same 13-week period for which you budgeted). (You may use the forms provided in this pamphlet, devise your own, or use a computer-generated version.) When complete, present the records showing the results to your merit badge counselor.
(There is a table for tracking your actual weekly income and expenses that you can use, at the end of this workbook, together with a partially completed example.)
4.Compare your budget with your actual income and expenses to understand when your budget worked and when it did not work. With your merit badge counselor, discuss what you might do differently the next time
3.Discuss with your merit badge counselor FIVE of the following concepts: c a. The emotions you feel when you receive money.
c b. Your understanding of how the amount of money you have with you affects your spending habits.
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Scout's Name: ________________________ |
cc. Your thoughts when you buy something new and your thoughts about the same item three months later.
Explain the concept of buyer's remorse.
cd. How hunger affects you when shopping for food items (snacks, groceries).
ce. Your experience of an item you have purchased after seeing or hearing advertisements for it.
Did the item work as well as advertised?
c f. Your understanding of what happens when you put money into a savings account.
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Scout's Name: ________________________ |
cg. Charitable giving. Explain its purpose and your thoughts about it.
ch. What you can do to better manage your money.
4.Explain the following to your merit badge counselor:
a.The differences between saving and investing, including reasons for using one over the other. Saving:
Investing:
Reasons for using one over the other:
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Scout's Name: ________________________ |
b.The concepts of return on investment and risk and how they are related.
c.The concepts of simple interest and compound interest Simple interest:
Compound interest:
d.The concept of diversification in investing.
e.Why it is important to save and invest for retirement.
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Scout's Name: ________________________ |
5.Explain to your merit badge counselor what the following investments are and how each works:
a.Common stocks.
b.Mutual Funds
c.Life Insurance
d.A certificate of deposit (CD)
e.A savings account.
f.A U.S. savings bond.
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Scout's Name: ________________________ |
6.Explain to your counselor why people might purchase the following types of insurance and how they work:
a.Automobile
b.Health
c.Homeowner’s/renter’s
d.Whole life and term life
7.Explain to your merit badge counselor the following:
a.What a loan is, what interest is, and how the annual percentage rate (APR) measures the true cost of a loan. What a loan is:
What interest is:
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Personal ManagementScout's Name: ________________________
and how the annual percentage rate (APR) measures the true cost of a loan:
b.The different ways to borrow money.
c.The differences between a charge card, debit card, and credit card. Charge card
Debit card,
Credit card.
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