Step #1

Your Career

Use the career information, including salary and benefits, that you obtained in an earlier assignment. Sometimes, we change our minds about what we “want to do when we grow up”. Perhaps you are rethinking your career choice or you want to perform some “what-if” analyses using different careers and associated incomes. Here are some additional sites that you might explore to obtain career information.

Record your chosen career & its monthly gross salary here.

Career Choice: 

Average Income: 

Please submit career choice and continue


Prepare a Budget Worksheet

What to Do:  Open a worksheet (Microsoft Excel for this activity) and create a monthly budget template. Be sure to include the following expense categories: rent/mortgage payment, utilities (water, electricity, gas), transportation, food, medical expenses, clothing, leisure activities, and miscellaneous.  (See example below)

Now, enter your monthly net income (your gross income minus taxes and other deductions). Job salaries typically refer to income before taxes. To determine how much money you will actually have to spend after taxes, if you make $15,000 per year, estimate Federal taxes at 8.5%. If you make $20,000 or more, estimate taxes at 10%. Federal tax forms may be downloaded at http://www.1040.com .

Now, enter the cell reference for your TOTAL monthly expenses. Next, enter the appropriate formula using cell references to calculate the difference between Income and Expenses, such as: =(B13-B14).

When Step #1 is completed, PROCEED TO Step #2