Consumer Education Budget Project Carol Dossett & Carla Schaer Midland High School

Step One: Finding a Job

The writing portion... Using the Occupational Outlook Handbook Find a career that you think you would enjoy doing after high school or after college. Type the information found and add it to your folder. This is the information you should be looking for: Starting salary What does the future hold? (Job Outlook) Working Conditions Qualities/Characteristics for the job Possible benefits (ex. Travel, flex hrs, etc) Hours per week or month expected to work Clothing you are expected to wear (suit, uniform, casual, etc.) Click for OOH

Step Two: Do the Math

Graph Net Pay Using Excel, graph the amount of Net Income (Net Pay) you will take home Figure Taxes, other deductions and Net Pay The formulas you may want to use: Taxes:(=Gross Pay *.20) Net Pay: (=Gross Pay – Taxes – Health Ins.) Use a chart (Pie or Column) to show your results

One example of how to set it up... Excel

Step Three: Find somewhere to live

Find an apartment or house Using the Internet, find an apartment or house in the city you want to live in. Remember to use a mortgage calculator if buying the house so as to pay interest. Some useful websites: Rent.com

Find furnishings for your place Find furnishings, flatware and linens for your house. Find out the price of cable, phone, Internet, electricity in the area you want to live Find pictures from magazines or the Internet of furniture, bedding, kitchen accessories, etc. Find the prices of each item you buy

Step Four: Find transportation

Transportation Find the monthly payment of your car New/Used Figure the cost of maintenance, gas, insurance Find a picture of the car you want to buy. Figure your monthly payment of the car. (Choose to charge interest or not.)

Step Five: Purchase Clothing

Purchase Clothing You must purchase two new outfits to wear to work You must have pictures and prices of all items Some helpful sites: You must buy: Shoes Socks Shirts Pants/Dresses Uniform (if applicable)

Step Six: Buy Groceries

The Groceries... In this section, you must buy specific groceries for a month. Pictures and prices must be included in your folder. Some websites we use: Kroger.com Aldi.com Schnucks.com Use the Internet to a local grocery store and find a picture and look through their ad to find specific groceries. You can also use the Internet to find sites that will deliver groceries to your house. Netgrocer.com

Step Seven: Entertainment

Have some fun... Find at least three things that you would like to do during the month. Find pictures and prices of all three of these things. Some examples: Sporting events Movies Concerts One-day getaways Club Memberships

Put it all together..

Curve Balls... As in real life, unexpected things happen. Life throws you a Curve Ball. A couple of days into the project, hand the students Curve Ball one. A few days later, hand them Curve Ball 2. Theyll need these curve balls for their preliminary budget.

Curve Ball #1 and #2 Curve Ball #1Curve Ball #2 If you went to college, you must pay back a college loan: 2 yr. college: subtract $200 a month for student loan 4 yr. college: subtract $500 a month for student loan 4 yr. college (transfer after 2 yrs.):subtract $400 a month for student loan 6 yr college: (Masters degree)subtract $600 a month for student loan 7 yr. or higher college: subtract $750 a month for student loan You must save at least 15% of your take home salary every month. Make sure to keep this until you work on your preliminary budget!!

Preliminary Budget When the binder is done, then fill out a preliminary budget. Have the students figure what they have spent during the month vs. what they made. Also have them decide whether their expense were fixed or flexible. Finally have them figure whether or not they stayed within their budget. (Net Pay – Expenses) Preliminary Budget

Final Test

The test... For a final test, I have them complete an adjusted budget figuring in their 3 rd curve ball and readjust their expenses if they were living outside their means. They must decide which expenses they can adjust and label them as fixed or flexible. They also have one final Curve Ball (Curve Ball #3). They must write a summary comparing and contrasting what they have learned from this project, was it realistic, and what would they do differently now that they know this information. Adjusted Budget

The test continued... Curve Ball #3 On the final test, they are given the last Curve Ball. They must react to this and show what they have done on the adjusted budget. You just found out that your salary at work is getting cut by 15%. All fixed expenses remain the same. You must adjust your variable (flexible) expenses to counteract the decrease in pay. Your income must be at least as much as your expenses. You must still put some into your savings account if possible.

The Evaluation After completing the project, the student receives two grades The Test The Evaluation

Variations... Career Project Instead of having a writing component on Step #1 Finding a Job, have the students: Create a brochure Design a Visual Aide Create a PowerPoint presentation Instead of writing this information, you could also choose to have the students present it orally to the class. This way the students learn about more than one occupation and practice speaking in front of others.

Questions???? Contacts: Carol Dossett – Carla Schaer –