Personal Budget Project
The purpose of this project is for you to set up a budget that would allow you to live the type of life you would like, as well as to understand what skills and/or education you need to get there. You will get to pick a career and find a house and car to "buy" developing a budget, and finding a career that would match your income needs. It's main purpose is to allow you to have fun dreaming of the future while realizing what these dreams may cost. I hope you learn about what it takes to be a successful adult today. It is not easy. It takes lots of work and attention to details!
GET A JOB! Your first job is to find one. Check out the list of careers at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That site will provide you with the median income and how much education is needed for such a career. No matter what your job might be, you must construct a working budget with costs less than expenses. PAY YOUR TAXES! As soon as you have found a career, find your net earnings after taking out federal income tax and OH State Tax (use the very last table on this page). Your social security tax will be 6.2% of your gross income if you are employed by someone else, 12.4% if you are self-employed. Enter all this into your budget spreadsheet. You will then have your net yearly income. YOUR HOUSE IS YOUR CASTLE: You will need to find a house or apartment that you can afford. (You can use other searches than the ones provided for house and car.) When looking at houses, you must use a mortgage calculator to find your monthly payment. Use 5% as your interest rate and 30 years for the length of the mortgage. You can have roommates, if you need help in covering the monthly rent or mortgage. Next, you must find a car or other type of transportation, and then set up a budget. Use the Car Payment Calculator to find your car payment for a 60 month loan at 10% interest. You must fill out the worksheet, print it out, then and discuss it with Mr. Kuhn. After completing the preliminary budget, you will exchange your budget with your partner. At this point your partner will review the project, looking for calculation errors and commenting on how realistic the budget is. To complete the project, you will need to make revisions to your original budget, explaining your reasons for doing so. Finally, you will need to create a presentation with about your "life," covering your job, your training, your house and car, and budget. Make sure to include a pie graph of your monthly expenses. You can use Google Presentations or Prezi. This presentation should wow! |
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