Introduction

Picture yourself 4 to 5 years in the future. You are about 22 years old, done with college, trade school or any other options you chose for youself after high school. You are out of your parents house, you have you first job and are now completely on your own!! You must now figure out how you are going to budget your money based on a take home amount of$24,000 a year.

Now that you are ready to jump into the working world, your job is to create a personal budget from scratch. Do not assume that you have anything! You must buy a car and if you are planning on going to college, you will have student loans (in other words, don't assume your parents have given you anything). Based on a take home amount of$24,000 (figure taxes have already been deducted from approximately a $30,000 salary) a year, create a budget spreadsheet in Excel. The areas that you must include are as follows:

FIXED EXPENSES

• Rent/Mortgage (payment per month)
• Renters Insurance (payment per month)
• Automobile (monthly payment)
• Auto Insurance (monthly payment)
• Health insurance (monthly payment)
• Credit Card
• Student loans (monthly payment if applicable)
• Long Term Savings
• Emergency

VARIABLE EXPENSES

• Food (groceries, restaurants, snacks)
• phone
• cell phone
• electricity
• clothing
• entertainment (movies, video rental, sporting events)
• haircuts
• vacations
• gas (car)
• cable tv

While gathering information, document all findings on the budget scratch pad worksheet provided budget_scratch_pad.htm. Make sure that you record whatever amount you need and the website that you found your information. Some areas such as allowance for vacation and savings are items that you may ask a parent or teacher for an amount, just be sure to document your resource. After information is gathered, using the information on your budget scratch pad, complete a spreadsheet of your budget in the Excel program. The design and creativity of your spreadsheet is up to you. You may choose any style as long as the spreadsheet makes sense. Simple formulas must be created in your Excel spreadsheet to find total fixed expenses and total variable expenses, and total of all expenses. All amounts and resources must be cited for full credit.

Refer to the spreadsheet example to get some ideas on what you spreadsheet could look like!

budget spreadsheet

The last task you will complete is a short questionare evaluating where your money is going. You will find a link to the questionare in the next section.

To accomplish this task, you first need to decide on where you want to live, what type of car you need etc. You then will need to begin your investigation of how much things will cost. You may find that certain things you would like are just too expensive and therefore, you must keep looking until you find something that suits your needs. Here is a list of resources available to you help you with your investigation (you are not limited to just these).

State Farm Insurance (car and apartment)

Progessive Insurance (car)

General Electric-GE (phone:1-800-844-6543)

Verizon (cell phone and in home phone)

Nextel (cell phone)

Alltel (cell phone)

Dish Network (cable tv)

Direct TV (cable tv)

Apartment guide.com (apartments)

Rent.com (apartments)

Yahoo Real Estate (houses and apartments)

Grand Rapids Association of Realtors (houses)

Suntech (student loans)

Collegiate Funding Services(student loans)

Lending Tree (home loans and student loans)

Combined Insurance (Health): 1-800-225-4500

The process will be easiest for you if you start with where you want to live. Then, find an automobile suitable for your needs and move on from there.

Click the following to fill out or print a copy of the questionnare.

budget_questionnaire.htm

When submitting project, be sure to include 2 printouts of your budget (one printout needs to include the formulas you used), your finished questionnaire, your completed budget scratch pad sheet and a printed rubric (I will fill out rubric). You will be evaluated individually on the following criteria. The entire project is worth 50 points.

Click here for printable rubric

	Poor 0-5	Adequate 6-7	Accomplished 8-9	Exemplary 10	Score
Created spreadsheet of budget in Excel program (2 printouts) , turned in budget scratch pad and completed questionnaire	Did not complete/ submitted unfinished/no questionnaire	completed spreadsheet (no formula printout) no questionnaire and no budget scratch pad	both printouts of budget submitted plus questionnaire but no budget scratch pad	spreadsheet completed in Excel (both printouts), completed questionnaire and budget scratch pad
Spreadsheet is legible and easy to follow	Hard to interpret/not legible	n/a	n/a	Easy to follow/legible
All areas of Fixed and Variable Expenses were completed	Very few of the expenses were completed	Some of the expenses were completed	majority of expenses were completed	all areas of fixed and variable expenses were completed
Dollar amounts and resource used were cited for each item	Hardly any dollar amounts were stated and no citation of sources	Some dollar amounts were stated and some citataions included	Almost all dollar amounts were included and most citations were included	All dollar amounts were stated and all sites were cited
Totals of each area are stated and all money is accounted for	Totals not stated	n/a	Totals do not add up to $24,000	All totals stated and they add up to equal $24,000

TOTAL POINTS _____/50

After completion of this project you will be able to see how expenses, investments and liabilities affect your monthly income

Images taken form Barry's Clip art and Clip Art Warehouse.