| Course | GF590 Personal Financial Planning |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 10 |
| Paper type | Comprehensive financial plan |
| Length | About 1,110 words, 7 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | MS in Finance |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for GF590 Unit 10
Eight Actions in Order: A Unit 10 Comprehensive Financial Plan for a Pharmacist and a Teacher
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
GF590: Personal Financial Planning
Unit 10 Comprehensive Financial Plan
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The household, its figures, premiums and actions are composite and illustrative; the sources cited are real.
Summary for the Couple
You earn about $203,000 a year and have built a net worth of $433,900. Your plan has three problems to solve: about $794 a month of card spending you do not track, life insurance that leaves each of you exposed by around $400,000 to $480,000, and saving that falls short of both your college and retirement goals. This plan fixes the first two in the first quarter and narrows the third. In return, it asks you to accept two compromises: college funding at about 64 percent of full cost rather than 75 percent, and retirement at 62 and 59 rather than 60 and 57.
The Eight Actions, in Order
1. Raise the pharmacist's 403(b) deferral from 3 to 5 percent. Owner: pharmacist. Date: January 15. Cost: about $175 a month of take-home pay. This captures the full employer match, a return no other step can equal.
2. Sell the $16,400 brokerage account, pay off the $7,300 card and add the rest to savings. Owners: both. Date: January 20. The reserve rises to about $30,300, over four months of essential spending.
3. Move dining and household purchases to a debit card with a weekly limit. Owners: both. Date: January 1. Without this step the later actions cannot be paid for.
4. Apply for term life insurance: $500,000 on the teacher and $400,000 on the pharmacist, each for twenty years. Owner: planner with both. Date: February 1. Cost: about $53 a month.
5. Raise auto liability limits and add a $1 million umbrella policy. Owner: teacher. Date: February 15. Cost: about $45 a month.
6. Raise the homeowners dwelling limit to the $372,000 rebuild estimate. Owner: teacher. Date: February 15. Cost: about $17 a month.
7. Raise college saving from $250 to $900 a month, with $520 going to the elder's account and $380 to the other. Owner: pharmacist. Date: February 1.
8. Open Roth IRAs and contribute $600 a month between them. Owner: teacher. Date: March 1.
Estate documents follow in March: wills naming a guardian, powers of attorney, health care directives and updated beneficiary forms.
Why This Order
The order is argued, not assumed. Actions that are free or pay immediately come first. The employer match returns 50 cents on every dollar the moment it is deposited. Paying off a card at 22.9 percent earns that rate with certainty.
Protection comes next. A death or disability before coverage is in place would undo every other step, and the risk review found that the teacher's death would leave the larger gap, because her job is outside Social Security and provides no survivor benefits for the children.
Each action is placed by what would be lost if it waited a year: a missed match and card interest are lost for good, an uninsured death is lost for good, while a later start on college or retirement saving costs only some growth.
Reserve, college and retirement increases follow, sized from what remains. Research on retirement saving shows that people are much more likely to keep saving when the increase happens automatically rather than by repeated choice, so every increase in this plan is set up as an automatic transfer (Madrian & Shea, 2001).
The Funding Table
New commitments come to $1,540 a month: $175 for the higher deferral, $115 for insurance, $650 for college and $600 for retirement.
New money comes to $1,635 a month:
1. The card payment of $450 is no longer needed once the card is paid off.
2. Bringing card spending onto a tracked debit budget frees $636 of income. The untracked amount was $794 a month, but $158 of it had been borrowed on the card rather than paid from income.
3. The $346 a month that now reaches savings and the brokerage account is redirected to the plan.
4. Trimming dining from $520 to $400 a month and travel from $6,000 to $5,000 a year frees $203.
The plan fits with about $95 a month to spare. If the debit budget recovers less than expected, the Roth contributions are reduced first, because they are the most flexible.
By Planning Area
Cash flow. The household's recorded surplus was mostly an illusion. Tracking card spending is the foundation of the plan.
Risk. Two term policies, an umbrella and a higher dwelling limit close the four exposures the household could not absorb. The pharmacist's group disability coverage pays 60 percent of salary; a supplemental policy should be reviewed at the next open enrollment.
Education. $900 a month now, with the $594 auto payment redirected when the loan ends in about 33 months, funds about 63 percent of full cost for the older child and 65 percent for the younger.
Retirement. At the plan's saving rate, retirement at 62 and 59 is within reach if the accounts earn about 6.3 percent a year. The original target of 60 and 57 would leave a shortfall of about $394,000.
Investment. The policy statement sets an 85 percent stock allocation in the accounts, justified by the teacher's pension, and caps costs at 0.20 percent.
Estate. Without wills, a court would choose the children's guardian. Beneficiary forms on the retirement accounts and new policies should name a trust or custodian for the children as contingent beneficiaries.
Tradeoffs, Stated Plainly
This plan does not reach every goal you named. College is funded at about 64 percent of full cost, so the children will need to contribute through work, aid or modest loans. Retirement comes two years later than you hoped. These are not failures of the plan; they are the result of meeting protection and debt needs first. The plan can be revisited as your incomes rise, and gradual increases tied to future raises are an effective way to close the remaining gaps without cutting current spending (Thaler & Benartzi, 2004).
Implementation and Review
The planner will confirm each action by its date and meet with you in April to review the first quarter. The full plan is reviewed every January. Professional standards require that recommendations be presented with their basis and that the planner monitor progress where the engagement includes it, as this one does (CFP Board, 2018).
Appendix
Supporting figures come from the earlier units: the net worth statement, cash flow statement, risk review, education calculation, retirement analysis and investment policy statement.
References
CFP Board. (2018). Code of ethics and standards of conduct. Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards. https://www.cfp.net/ethics/code-of-ethics-and-standards-of-conduct
Madrian, B. C., & Shea, D. F. (2001). The power of suggestion: Inertia in 401(k) participation and savings behavior. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 116(4), 1149-1187. https://doi.org/10.1162/003355301753265543
Thaler, R. H., & Benartzi, S. (2004). Save More Tomorrow: Using behavioral economics to increase employee saving. Journal of Political Economy, 112(S1), S164-S187. https://doi.org/10.1086/380085
Reading the GF 590 Unit 10 instructions
The final GF590 assignment brings the semester's analyses together in one plan addressed to the clients. Open with a short summary in plain language that names the main problems, the plan's response and what it asks the clients to accept. List the actions in order, each with an owner, a date, a monthly cost and the line of cash flow that pays for it. Argue the order from principles, such as acting first on steps that are free or irreversible. Prove the plan fits with a funding table comparing new commitments with new money, and say what gives first if money falls short. Restate each planning area's finding briefly and link it to an action. State the tradeoffs plainly. Close with implementation and review commitments. Cite planning standards and behavioral research in APA 7.
Inside the GF590 Unit 10 example
A summary addressed to the couple opens the plan, naming untracked spending, insurance gaps and under-saving and the two compromises. Eight numbered actions follow with owners, dates and costs, from the January deferral increase to Roth IRAs in March, then estate documents. A section argues the order, and the highlighted sentence states the principle of what is lost by waiting. Automatic transfers are justified with Madrian and Shea. The funding table sets $1,540 of commitments against $1,635 of new money in four sources. Seven short sections cover cash flow, risk, education, retirement, investment and estate. A tradeoffs section cites Thaler and Benartzi on raising saving with future raises, and implementation and review commitments cite the CFP Board before an appendix.
GF590 Unit 10 rubric: what earns full points
The GF590 capstone rubric gives heavy weight to sequence and funding. Graders reward actions that each carry an owner, a date and a cost, ordered by a stated principle rather than by topic. A funding table that proves the plan fits, with a fallback if money falls short, often decides the top marks. Instructors in the MS in Finance program look for a summary written for the clients in plain language and for tradeoffs stated honestly rather than buried. Each area section should link an earlier finding to a specific action. Implementation and review commitments show the plan is meant to be carried out. Behavioral evidence from Madrian and Shea and from Thaler and Benartzi supports the automatic increases, while the planners' professional standards ground the review commitments.
GF590 Unit 10 help: mistakes that cost points
Many GF590 Unit 10 plans are lists of good ideas with no order, no dates and no money attached. Others place investments first and insurance last, leaving the family exposed while the plan begins. Funding is assumed rather than shown, and the plan spends a surplus that the cash flow analysis already found to be largely illusory. Tradeoffs are hidden, so the clients believe every goal is met. Earlier findings are repeated at length instead of being linked to actions. Whatever household your course followed, keep the structure: a plain summary, ordered actions with owner, date, cost and funding source, a reasoned order, a funding table with a fallback, short area sections tied to actions, honest tradeoffs and a review schedule.
Get a GF590 Unit 10 example written to your instructions
Point to the household case and your earlier GF590 unit work, the plan format or length required, and the rubric. The custom plan sequences each recommendation, funds it from a named line, assigns owner and date, states tradeoffs openly and stays consistent with prior figures. It remains coursework, not advice. Your first sample is free, in 24-48h. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
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GF590 Unit 10 questions, answered
How is this plan different from a list of recommendations?
Order and money. The sample places each action in a month, says who does it and shows which cash flow line pays for it, then proves the total fits. A list of good ideas with no sequence or funding is the version this unit most often marks down, because it cannot tell a household what to do first or how to afford it.
Is the plan financial advice?
No. The household is invented, a composite built for coursework, and the plan demonstrates how recommendations are sequenced and funded for a GF590 assignment. The same holds for a version prepared from your case materials. Real accounts, policies and tax filings call for a qualified professional who knows the actual family, and the sample should not stand in for one.
What if earlier units in my course used different figures?
Carry the figures your own earlier submissions established, corrected where feedback showed an error, and say where a number changed. The sample reuses its household's surplus, net worth, insurance gaps and retirement dates from prior units so the plan reads as one piece of work. Graders frequently check consistency across units, and an unexplained change looks like an error even when it is a correction.
Where can I find a free GF590 Unit 10 sample paper?
This page holds a full GF590 Unit 10 comprehensive financial plan for a pharmacist and teacher, with eight ordered actions, a funding table, area sections, stated tradeoffs and APA 7 references.
Where does the $1,635 of new money come from?
The freed $450 card payment, $636 of income no longer lost to untracked card spending, $346 of existing saving redirected, and $203 from trimming dining and travel.