In the WORD lab you developed a plan to achieve the career of your dreams. At this point you can assume that your planning was right on target and you are in your new job. It is now time to plan for your first home out on your own.  (Is that cool or what!?)

Your assignment is to develop a realistic budget, using EXCEL, to determine whether you can afford to move out and what you can afford to pay taking into consideration your anticipated monthly expenses. 

You will create more than one version of your budget. The first version will include your anticipated income and a minimum of 10 monthly expenses you expect to have.  This is a simple spreadsheet in terms of its format. Your first effort is to complete the spreadsheet based on your own understanding of living expenses with no additional research.  This spreadsheet is to be turned in.

Your next effort is to create a more accurate budget of anticipated income and expenses based on serious research. You may check the paper to see what apartments or homes cost to rent and you may check with your parents and/or friends who are in the know to help determine what you will have to pay. 

You must now update your first spreadsheet with the new realistic expenses your have identified, and a realistic estimate for your monthly net income when you first start working.  This spreadsheet must be turned in.  You may choose to improve upon the sophistication of the first spreadsheet.

Finally, you must produce a third spreadsheet that is based on your consideration of the following issues:

1.        The minimum you must earn to live on your own

2.        Your options for getting a new place if you can’t do it on your own

3.        Your monthly expenses that can be reduced and yet still live comfortably

You may not work with other students in this class on this project. You may use the dictionary or other sources to understand the expectations and you may use the Internet for research. You may ask the instructor questions regarding the assignment.

You will turn in all three spreadsheets and an explanation of the process you used to complete this task. 

When completed, you are also to perform a self-assessment, that is, you are to assign yourself points for each of the following categories of accomplishment.  For each of the categories you are asked to assess, you should provide an explanation to justify your assessment. 

Again, you now get to assess your efforts:

I will grade your project based on the following:

Your spreadsheets

Content                                                    5 points

Format                                                      5 points

The process used to perform this task             15 points

The self-assessment and explanation                 5 points

Important Links

• Institute for the Future