Your Future Life

Your Future Financial Life

Name: Due Date: Period: Your Future Financial Life

This assignment will help you to prepare for your future. You will need to research information about a job, house, car and other living expenses. In addition you will be researching this information for two locations. One location is in Lancaster, New York and the other is any place of your choosing within the United States.

Where Will You Be? Besides Lancaster, New York, where else would you like to live and work? (city & state)

PART I: YOUR CAREER

You have just graduated from college or finished an internship in your chosen career. Now is the time for you to find a job. Do some research about your chosen job or interview someone who works in your chosen field, in order to help you gain more understanding about your new career.

The future career field (area) that I have chosen is

Use the following website to help find some information about your future job www.cbsalary.com. Click on the Salary Calculator on top tool bar. Next, enter your job title or field and Click on Calculate. (Click no thanks to the pop-up ads.) Find the job that you would like, use the descriptions to be certain it is the job you want.

What is your Job Title:

1. Write a short description about your job.

2. Why did you choose this job/ career?

3. What are some of the positive aspects of this job/career?

4. What are some of the negative aspects of this job/career?

(Lancaster) (Location #2)

5. Calculate the average median expected salary for this job in both locations. Change the city and state to match. (This is your gross yearly income) PART II: The Gamesheet

Now that you have a job you will know how much money you have to spend for your living expenses. Before continuing you will need to obtain the game of life spreadsheet. Follow the directions below to obtain the spreadsheet.

1. Click on my computer, go to the Lcsdcluster shared drive (S:) 2. Open the AOF/ECONOMICS folder 3. Open the folder for Sand 4. Click on Game of Life Sheet

YOU WILL ONLY BE FILLING IN THE YELLOW BOXES

5. At the top type your name into the box 6. Fill in the boxes on both sides for job 7. Fill in the location box for your second location 8. Under the cell marked gross, you will enter your total salary (gross income) 9. Save this spreadsheet in your student folder (Do File Save As:)

You will need to use this spreadsheet while researching the rest of your purchases in this project. Once you have made a purchase, add that item into the appropriate cell on the spreadsheet.

For example:  Next to House Total, enter in the full cost of your home.  Next to the box labeled mortgage, enter your monthly payment for your house.  Next to the box labeled car payment, enter the monthly amount for your car  Next to the box labeled car insurance, enter the amount from the project. Remember to only enter in the Yellow boxes

Consistently look at the yellow bi-weekly discretionary income box. This is your money left over every 2 weeks to spend on additional items.

In order to complete the second or bottom half of the spreadsheet you will need to have a minimum of $200 dollars in the bi-weekly discretionary income box. Keep this in mind as you purchase your items. You may need to change or adjust your purchases in order to maintain this minimum amount of discretionary income. Remember to fill in the spreadsheet as you do your research. You will need to print this spreadsheet out and attach with the project.

* No need to fill out the game of life product part in section 2, we will do this later. PART III: HOUSING A) How much home can you afford? To calculate the maximum amount of home you can buy you will need to multiply your salary from above by 3. Your home should not be more than 3 times your annual salary. (Lancaster) (Location #2) B) Find a home Go to the following website www.realtor.com to find a place to live. Go to the section “find a home” fill this out with the choices and options you want. Print out your new home and attach it to the assignment.

Lancaster Location #2 1) What is the specific address of your newly chosen place to live?

2) Give a description of your new place.

3) Explain why have you chosen to live in this place.

4) What is the cost to purchase your new home? Print out the screen with BOTH your new places on it and attach it.

B) Calculate Monthly Mortgage Payment

Go to the following website finance.yahoo.com/ On the top bar under personal finance, click loans. Next in the Calculator Box, choose Comprehensive Mortgage Calculator . You will use this calculator to determine the monthly mortgage payment for your new place. Enter all the information you have. The loan amount will be the entire cost of your house. The term will be a 30-year fixed rate (360 month) and the interest rate will be 6.5%. Switch calculator to yearly, then click submit. Lancaster Location #2

1. How much your home payment will be per month. (House payment/Month) C) Homeowners Insurance

Your home needs to be insured before you buy it. After you enter your mortgage on the spreadsheet it will calculate your home insurance. Write down the amount below that was calculated for you. Lancaster Location #2

1. What is the monthly premium for homeowners insurance?

2. What is your annual premium? (number from above multiply by 12)

PART III: STATE INCOME TAXES

In life you need to pay both state and federal income taxes. These taxes are based on a percentage of your income. The federal income tax and New York state tax for Lancaster will be calculated on spreadsheet for you. Although, you will need to calculate the state tax for your second location. Follow the steps below to calculate this tax.

Step 1) Find the state you plan to be living in on the chart at the end of this packet. The number next to the state name is your state income tax %.

Step 2) Convert the percentage from step 1 to a decimal. (ex. 12.5% = .125)

Step 3) Multiply your job salary from page 1 by the decimal point from step 2. This is the amount of state income tax you must pay.

Step 4) Calculate your State income tax per month (divide the number from step 3 by 26). Write this number on the line (State Income tax/Month)

PART IV:UTILITIES

Discuss expenses with the people in your household to find out what the average cost per month is for each of the utilities listed. Calculate the total of these utilities.

1. Natural Gas

2. Electric

3. Cable

4. Gas (car)

5. Cell phone PART V: TRANSPORTATION

1. What type of transportation will you use to get around? (If not a car skip to question # 7 in this section)

2. What vehicle will you buy? Be specific. (year, make, model, color, etc.)

3. Why would you buy this car?

Go to the following website www.kbb.com, to determine the cost to buy your car. Follow the instructions on the website to find your vehicle.

4. What is the blue book value of your car?

Go back to finance.yahoo.com/ to calculate how much your monthly payments will be. At the website use the personal finance loans and click on What would my loan payment be? Enter the price of the car from above. The term of the loan will be 60 months (5 years). The interest rate will be 7%.

5. What is the monthly payment to buy this car? (Car/ month) ______CAR INSURANCE: Go to www.progressive.com. Follow the instructions on the screen to calculate your insurance cost. Be sure to protect your identity by using fictional names and information certain. Use the address of your new houses. Use made up names and numbers, DO NOT give your Social Security number. Lancaster Location #2

6. What is the insurance cost for your car per month?

If you choose public transportation:

7. Why did you decide to use public transportation?

8. What is the cost of the public transportation to travel round trip to work for 1 day?

9. Calculate the amount of money spent to travel each month by multiplying the number from above by 30. Lancaster Location #2

(Transportation/month) PART VI: SURPLUS / DEFICIT

How much money is remaining for all other expenses? Lancaster Location #2

(Discretionary Income)

If the amount is a negative number you have spent more money than you earn. You will need to go back and adjust items in order to have money left to live on.

Finally, List and explain (if necessary) 10 additional expenses that you will need to pay for either in the short or long term which have not been mentioned in this assignment.

Massachusett Alabama 5.0 5.3 South Dakota s

No state Alaska Michigan 4.0 Tennessee income tax

Arizona 5.04 Minnesota 7.85 Texas

Arkansas 7.0 Mississippi 5.0 Utah California 9.3 Missouri 6.0 Vermont Colorado 4.63 Montana 6.9 Virginia

Connecticut 5.0 Nebraska 6.84 Washington

No state Delaware 5.95 Nevada West Virginia income tax No No state New State Florida Wisconsin income Hampshire income tax tax

Georgia 6.0 New Jersey 6.37 Wyoming

Hawaii 8.25 New Mexico 8.2 Washington, D.C. Idaho 7.8 New York 6.85 http://www.bankrate.com/yho/itax/edit/state/profiles/state_tax_SD.asp Illinois 3.0 North Carolina 8.25 Indiana 3.4 North Dakota 5.54 Iowa 8.98 Ohio 7.5 Kansas 6.45 Oklahoma 7.0 Kentucky 6.0 Oregon 9.0 Louisiana 6.0 Pennsylvania 2.8 http://www.bankrate.com/yho/itax/edit/state/profiles/state_tax_WVa.as Maine 8.5 Rhode Island 1.0 p Maryland 4.75 South Carolina 7.0