budsheet

 In this activity you will open the spreadsheet and fill in every cell that is shaded in yellow.  Other cells will automatically calculate from your entries. 

Notice that you will need to do some investigation.  For instance, you will need to look up the beginning salaries of your projected career field in the city/town in which you hope to work.  You will also need to look up apartment rent prices.  You will need to look up federal and state income tax rates appropriate to where you anticipate working.  (Yes, you will need to look this up.)  You will also need to predict a number of expenses like utilities, cable/internet, student loans, cell phone, issues with cars, medical costs and insurance, and numerous others.  For some of these you will need to go to websites to get good estimates.  For instance, you can go to a cable/internet provider and find their prices.  Some of this information may come up when you communicate with your parent(s)/guardian(s). 

In addition to completing the spreadsheet, you will need to submit an ancillary document explaining why you have the figures you have and what resources you used to indicate that your values are correct.  If you use a particular company website to get ideas, you will need to cite this.  (I anticipate this will occur frequently.) . You will not receive full credit if you do not indicate where you got the information to enter as amounts.

On your budget, note that if your income seems unrealistically high (particularly for you first year after college) or your spending seems unrealistically frugal, your budget may receive a lower grade.

Due to hobbies and other interests, many of you may have other anticipated expenditures.  These go in the category of "other" and will be explained in your ancillary document.  

Notice that this is a monthly budget.  Some months are different than others.  For instance, you may have a month in which quarterly or annual payments are due.  You may also find that you need to pick up extra work on some months.