Creating a Household Budget

Class: Personal Finance 30 Teacher: Mr. McLauchlin

The Big Idea: Your financial world is a mix of incomes, required expenses, optional expenses, fixed and variable expenses, as well as, savings and investments. These financial elements in your future are connected to decisions in your present. The opportunities and constraints of your financial future are directly connected with the financial choices made along the path to that future. Essential Question: How can I build a budget, for a two-income household, which is reflective of the future financial conditions? What do I need to do today to prepare for that financial future? Assignment: You, along with a partner, will create a budget, using the format described in class for a two-income household. Your budget will cover both monthly and yearly values for your household, 10 years into the future. In order to create the budget you will need to imagine what your future may look like, or what you want it to look like. However, this will not be done simply by guessing, you will need to determine your career, education, housing, transportation, income, taxation, investments, savings, expenses and possible dependents based on research on actual financial data. An example: although we are yet to cover investing (we will before this project is finished) you may want to consider what your financial position would be if you invested money now, in a mutual fund, GIC or bond. This future investment income, will be based on real information being calculated based on investment and interest, not simple guessing! Again, we will be covering the details of much of these topics throughout the semester, so you will be able to expand on these sections as we go. That is why we are starting this early! Much like your personal budget the household budget must include: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) Monthly budgets for a year, 10 years from now A yearly budget, 10 years from Two-incomes, both contributing to the household budget (each partner) Non-employment reoccurring or regular income (Investment income for example) Household irregular income, such as gifts Household fixed expenses, such as your car payments Household required expenses, such as a cell phone contract payment Household optional expenses, such as movies and music Household variable expenses, such as food Household savings and any investments you make Any dependent expenses, if you chose to have dependents Taxation, both income and property Loans, credit card debt or any other financial liabilities needed in your household Student loan repayments if post-secondary was chosen for your future self (As stated in class, this will be assumed to 10,000$ per degree to create a level start for education) 15) Your short-term and long-term financial goals

The spreadsheet for the monthly and yearly household budgets will be turned in twice. Accompanying it will be a paper, video or presentation. The assignment will be turned in at mid-semester and then at year-end. Please note that if you choose the paper or the video option, you DO NOT HAVE to start over for the second submission, instead I want you to add to it and build upon the first submission. If you choose the presentation, some repetition may be required, since it is being conducted in the moment, but should to be focused on the second half of the assignment. The assignment submissions, regardless of form chosen will: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Sum up the data in the spreadsheets Outline the short and long-term goals of the household Explain the decisions that were made to get you to the financial position your household is in Explain how you found the information for the budget Explain why you made the decisions you made Detail the opportunities and constraints that exist because of these decisions, in your financial future 7. Explain how your budget changed and developed over the course of the semester (what influenced changes) As stated, you will have a choice of three different methods of presenting this information: 1. Paper: You will together write one paper, which must discuss all the above criteria, in essay format. The first submission of this paper will be 4-6 pages and the final will be 6-8 pages. It will be doubled spaced and with size 12 Times New Roman font and 1 inch margins. 2. Interview: You may conduct a full interview with your future selves, explaining all the above criteria in a full question answer format. This interview will be recorded and edited and will be 6-8 minutes in length for the first submission and 8-10 minutes in length for the final submission. 3. Presentations: You can choose to present to class a detailed, scripted explanation of your household budget, complete with a visual element, such as PowerPoint. As with the above options, you will need all the listed criteria in your presentation. If this option is chosen, you will need to make TWO full-length presentations, since you cannot directly add to the previous presentation. The length of the presentations will be no less than 6 minutes each. Regardless of format chosen, you will turn the assignment in to me, through either Google Drive/Dropbox or email. The video will likely be too large to email so sharing is a better option; of course, it can be loaded on to YouTube as well, which we will discuss prior to this time. The presentation students must share their visual element of the presentation with me. The rubric, for this assignment, including both the spreadsheet and explanation portion is included with this assignment, and is the same regardless of format chosen. There is also a short individual portion to this assignment, to which the rubric is also included at the end of this assignment. The individual portion will be due at the conclusion of unit 2 on financial institution and credit.

As part of this assignment, you must imagine yourself 10 years into the future and decide some critical life and financial elements. This image can be exactly what you want to do with your future, or maybe something you have been curious about, the point is the exploration. You will need to consider your education, where did you do to school, what was your degree and what salary are you able to earn because of it. For parities sake anyone completing an undergraduate degree will finish with 10,000$ in student loans that must be repaid over 10 years and your future self must still be repaying. You will consider housing, renting or purchasing, if you are buying a house it must be mortgaged (no assumed lottery winnings sorry!). You will consider transportation, vehicle, transit, fuel, repairs, etc. You will look also look at how you plan to spend your money, required expenses such as utilities, optional expenses such as entertainment, fixed expenses such as insurance, and variable expenses such as food. You will also consider if your imaginary household includes any dependents. If it does, they come with a financial cost as well. The point of this portion of the exercise is that you must base your budget on factual data, and to do so, you must research. You will hand in a summary paper that will include the characteristics of your future self, as well as, the research you conducted to determine these values. This paper will not be due until next month, once we have covered financial institutions and credit in detail. You MUST attempt to connect this research, in some way to our discussions on budgeting and out future discussions on financial institutions. Each person will hand in his/her own paper, through Google Drive or email. Try to avoid printing please! The essay will be 2-3 pages in length.

Creating a Household Budget Rubric

Teacher Name: Mr. McLauchlin CATEGORY /75 Budget Elements (15 elements from the assignment) /15 13-15 Excellent Students include all required elements of the budget for monthly amounts and yearly total, using a format similar to that used in class. Budget is clear and easy to read, and all elements are expertly addressed. It is extremely clear, from both the spreadsheets and analysis portion of the assignment that the students researched the financial choices that made up the budget. The research supports the numbers in a very logical way. Goals are clearly defined on the spreadsheet and are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Bound. The Opportunities/Constraints are explained in a detailed manner along with the goals in the analysis portion. In the analysis portion, it is extremely clear how the budget changed and grew throughout the semester as new knowledge arose.
The budget elements are detailed and explained in a very clear way in the analysis portion of the assignment. It is very evident that the students understood why they made the decisions they made.

Student Name: ________________________________________ 9-12 Proficient Students include all required elements of the budget monthly amounts and yearly. Budget is clear and easy to read, and all elements are addressed.
It is mostly clear, from both the spreadsheets and analysis portion of the assignment that the students researched the financial choices that made up the budget. The research supports the numbers. Goals are defined on the spreadsheet and are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Bound. The Opportunities/Constraints are explained along with the goals in the analysis portion. In the analysis portion, it is mostly clear how the budget changed and grew throughout the semester as new knowledge arose. The budget elements are detailed and explained in the analysis portion of the assignment. It is mostly evident that the students understood why they made the decisions they made.

6-9 Fair Students include most of the required elements of the budget monthly amounts and yearly total. Budget is mostly clear and can be understood.

Below 6 Limited Elements are missing from the budget or complete periods are absent from the budget altogether. Budget is not clear and is hard to understand.

Research /15

Goal Setting and Opportunities/Constraints /15

It is somewhat clear, from both the spreadsheets and analysis portion of the assignment that the students researched the financial choices that made up the budget. The research attempts to support the numbers. Goals are defined on the spreadsheet. The Opportunities/Constraints, along with the goals, are explained, but only briefly in the analysis portion.

It is not clear that the students researched the financial choices that made up the budget. The research does not support the numbers.

Goals were not identified or little thought was given to them. Opportunities/Constraints were not explained in the analysis portion.

Budget Maintenance and Adaptation /15

In the analysis portion, it is somewhat clear how the budget changed and grew throughout the semester as new knowledge arose. The budget elements partially are detailed and explained in the analysis portion of the assignment. It is only somewhat evident that the students understood why they made the decisions they made.

Budget Elements Explanation /15

How the budget changed and grew throughout the semester as new knowledge arose was either not discussed or only briefly addressed in the analysis portion. The budget elements are not detailed and explained in the analysis portion of the assignment. It is evident that the students did not understand why they made the decisions they made.

Creating a Household Budget Personal Paper Rubric

Teacher Name: Mr. McLauchlin CATEGORY /50 9-10 Excellent Content Knowledge, Research - Student demonstrates an /10 extensive knowledge and understanding of the information presented. - Resources are used to strengthen and validate all financial decisions. Organization - The information is presented /10 in logical, interesting sequence, making it easy to follow. 7-8 Proficient - Student demonstrates an ease of knowledge and understanding of the information presented but sometimes fails to elaborate. - Resources are used to validate some financial decisions. - The information is presented in a logical sequence, making it easy to follow. Student Name: ________________________________________ 5-6 Fair Below 5 Limited - Student demonstrates basic - Student demonstrates understanding and knowledge minimal understanding and of the information presented knowledge of the information and is able to demonstrate presented and is unable to basic concepts. demonstrate basic concepts. - Resources are not used to - Resources are not present. support financial decisions. - The information is presented - The sequence of information in a somewhat logical is difficult to follow due to sequence, making it somewhat scattered sequences. easy to follow.
- No more than five misspellings and/or grammatical errors are present. - The essay is less than twothree pages in length, including the title and reference page. - The text is double-spaced, but margin or font size and style requirements are not met. - A title page is not present - Connections are drawn between the research data and the material from class, which are somewhat relevant. - More than five spelling and/ or grammatical errors are present. - The essay is less than two pages in length all together. - Spacing, margins and font have not been met as required. - A title page is not present

Spelling and Grammar /10 Format /10

- No misspellings or grammatical errors are present.

- No more than three misspellings and/or grammatical errors are present. The essay is less than two-three pages in length. - The text is double-spaced, and meets the margin, font and style requirements. - A title page is present

Connections /10

- The essay is two-three pages in length. - The text is double-spaced, and meets the margin and font size and style requirements. - A title page is present - Pagination has been added to the essay. - Connections are drawn between the research data and the material from class, which are very relevant.

- Connections are drawn between the research data and the material from class, which are mostly relevant.

- Either connections are drawn between the research data and the material from class, which are not relevant, or drawn at all.