Personal Finance

This collection of Nuffield Maths resources explores Personal Finance. The demand is roughly equivalent to that in GCE A level.

They include slide shows to introduce the topics, student sheets and teacher notes, as well as other relevant resources.

The teachers' notes start with a short overview of the activity, who and what it is designed for, and lists the necessary resources. The student sheets have background information where needed, and tasks for the students to work and reflect on. Extensions and solutions are included in the teachers' notes.

The collection contains the following resources:

House price moving averages This activity uses UK house prices to introduce moving averages and weighted moving averages.

Credit cards   Students use a recurrence relation to work out how long it takes to pay off a credit card loan and how much it costs. They can use a graphic calculator and/or spreadsheet to do the working.

Annual Percentage Rate (APR)   Students calculate the APR in the simplest case where a sum of money is borrowed at a particular time and paid back, with interest, in a single payment at a later date.

APR with more than one instalment This resource shows students how to check and then find the APR in more difficult cases when a loan or debt is repaid in several annual installments.

Measuring inflation using Laspeyres index   Students use a formula to calculate Laspeyres index to obtain a measure of price changes during different periods of time. They use a spreadsheet and/or a calculator to do the working.

Working with percentages  Use this activity to check what percentage methods students use, and to encourage them to use efficient multiplier methods.