FSEM 100P1 | Life Auditing: Fiscal Fitness, Resilience, and Financial Literacy

To survive today’s increasingly complex and volatile world, we each should develop financial literacy.  While auditing was originally the sub-discipline of accounting dedicated to expressing an opinion as to the fairness of corporate financial statements, it has now become the art and science of gathering evidence for a host of different disciplinary objectives.  This course is designed to combine these two disciplines and lead students to develop a critical understanding of the various problems requiring resilient and responsible financial decision-making.  From George Clason’s classic 1926 novel The Richest Man in Babylon to Thomas Stanley’s arresting The Millionaire Mind, we will read, discuss, and debate a variety of primary sources to develop critical personal skills needed for personal financial planning.  We will also explore financial markets, investment strategies, and financial planning.  By the end of the semester, students will have developed their own “Life Auditing Program” and “Personal Financial Plan,” as well as a personally designed “toolkit” of websites for further developing their educations in financial literacy.

Photo of Rachel Graefe-Anderson, Associate Professor

Rachel Graefe-Anderson, Associate Professor

I have studied and taught finance, financial literacy, and financial markets for over a decade and am excited to help students begin their financial journeys. I have loved my time here at UMW since 2012 and am passionate about teaching the skills and knowledge needed to navigate today’s financial systems and industry. I earned undergraduate degrees from the Pennsylvania State University in Computer science, Management Science, and Information Systems prior to attending Purdue University to earn a master’s degree in Economics and my doctorate in Finance. Here at UMW, I teach quite a few other Finance-related courses including, but not limited to, Financial Modeling, Advanced Corporate Finance, and a special topics course on Financial Crises. I have also taken students to Paris to study at the American Business School (ABS Paris), at which I taught a diverse group of international students about global differences between business management and oversight. Finally, I am excited to be advising and teaching the students who run the SMIF (“student-managed investment fund”), which has gained over 70% since its inception. My research and areas of expertise follow two paths: 1) informing the debate on whether CEOs are overpaid and how this impacts firms’ financial outcomes and 2) writing case studies for use in the classroom focused on estimating financial value and solving financial problems.
My other interests include running, hiking with my “pack”, reading, traveling, and music. My husband is a collector of guitars and a terrific cook! The rest of my pack are my three pups – Bingo is an 8-year-old Blue Tick Coon Hound, Remy is a 4-year-old German Short-Haired Pointers, and Henry is an (almost) 2-year-old Mix.