1. For a step-by-step tour of this process, press space bar to continue.
The Process
For a step-by-step tour of this process, press space bar to continue.
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2. Your Budget Remember, you make $5,000 per month.
Work independently, in pairs or small groups.
Print budget worksheet (Click “monthly budget” below)
Fill out the monthly budget form. Calculate percentages and complete the table.
Use calculator link below if needed.
Answer question about adjusting your budget. This mayhelp you later.
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4. Now that your worksheet is completed, you know how
much you can afford to spend each month on your
car payment. We’re one step away from shopping!
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5. Before you start shopping
We are getting ready to go to the dealership! First, a few terms.
What is an auto loan?
Once you choose the car, you will have to take out a loan. An auto loan is when you borrow money from a bank to buy a car. Yes, you have to pay it back. You can choose a 3-year loan, where you agree to pay the bank back within 3 years. You can choose a 5-year loan or a 6-year loan, in which you agree to pay the bank back within 5 or 6 years. The 3-year loan is called a short-term loan. The 5 and 6-year loans could be considered longer-term loans because you will take longer to “pay them off.” Some long term loans, like a loan to buy a house, can take as long as 30 years or more to pay off.
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6. You are now ready to go shopping online!
Auto Dealership
You are now ready to go shopping online!
For this activity we will go to the Roseville Automall in Roseville, California.
There you will choose the dealership you’d like to visit.
Press space bar to see how to navigate the Roseville Automall website. If you feel ready, you may skip this step.
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7. By clicking the Roseville Automall link, you will come to the
the home page above. Click on the dealership you would
like to visit. For this example, we will choose the Ford dealer.
See icon and cursor above. Press space bar to continue.
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8. Cick “New Inventory” as shown above Press space bar to continue
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9. You might want to bookmark the page after you have chosen
Scroll. You can click on the car’s images to learn more about each car.
You might want to bookmark the page after you have chosen
the car you’d like to buy. Ask a partner or teacher if you don’t know how to bookmark a web page. Press space bar to continue.
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10. Remember when we talked about loans?
Well, now it is time to go loan shopping!
We are going to visit the Sacramento Credit
Union website to use a special calculator. The
Calculator will tell you how much you will have to pay
each month when you take out the loan of your choice. Remember, you’re choosing between a 3-year loan, a 5-year loan, or a 6-year loan. Click here if you'd like to go to calculator now. Select "simple loan calculator".
Don't forget you'll need your loan worksheet. For this click "Return to Activity" (below) and select "Resource 2".
Press space bar to continue
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11. Press space bar to continue
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12. What is an interest rate?
Notice how your loan accounting table lists interest rates?
What is an interest rate?
An interest rate is a percentage of the amount that you borrowed.
Banks want you to pay back the money you borrowed, plus
an extra amount of money called “interest”. There are different ways
to calculate interest which we will not go into here. An interest rate of 5% is lower than 6% or 7%. Therefore you will have to pay less money to the bank if you take a loan with a lower interest rate.
Go to the Sacramento Credit Union and use the special calculator. For a 3-year loan, put in 5% as your interest rate. Put 6% for a 5-year loan and 7% for a 6-year loan. Notice the trend?
Press space bar to continue
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13. After clcking on "Simple Loan Calculator", you will come to this page
Click here if you want to go to Simple Loan Calculator now
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14. Type in the length of term and the interest rate as shown on worksheet.
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15. Fill information in loan accounting table
Click “back” button (lower left) and repeat steps for 5 and 6-year loans. Enter data in table.
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16. Don’t forget to answer the questions:
What trends do you see in interest rates, comparing the three kinds of loans?
What can you conclude when comparing interest rates as the term (length of
time) of the loan increases?
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17. Answer questions on page 2 of the loan accounting worksheet.
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19. Analyze Think about the information you have obtained.
Can you afford the monthly payments?
Do you have to go back and change something
in your budget? For example you could take, say, 2%
away from your clothing budget, and put it toward your
car payment. But you would have to stop spending as
much on your clothes. You could take, say, 5% from
your entertainment expenses and add it to your car
payment, but you would have to give up some of your
entertainment (movies, new video games, etc.).
Or, you could choose a less expensive car.
What kind of loan will you choose?
Time to decide and sign some contracts!
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