ANTICIPATED BUDGET ACTIVITY

ANTICIPATED BUDGET ACTIVITY FCST 365 (Fall 2016) Purpose Make personal application of the intelligent consumer principles illuminated through the course by projecting what their household budget will look like five years following completion of each person’s academic career. To complete the task, it will be necessary to work through the process of producing a budget that is consistent with their goals, their financial history, and circumstances that are pertinent to this task. Fundamentals of the Assignment 1. Students are expected to work through the mental process of determining their individual goals and projecting into the future what basic living circumstances will characterize their lives five years following the completion of their education. 2. From that information, students will develop and produce three documents related to this assignment: (a) a budget table or spreadsheet that conveys anticipated income and expenses; (b) a budget narrative which explains the table/spreadsheet; and, (c) a list of references from which the information necessary to calculate the budget was obtained. Documents will be submitted electronically through Blackboard. Assessing Student Performance Point Values Students will be awarded as much as 100 points based on these criteria: Accuracy of Research…………….…30 pts (30%) Quality of Analysis…………………..30 pts (30%) Thoroughness………………….………30 pts (30%) Professional Communication….…10 pts (10%) Grade Assessment Completely Meets Expectations = 100% Somewhat Meets Expectations = 75% Does Not Meet Expectations = 50% No Effort Evident = 0% Criteria Explanations Accuracy of Research scores will reflect the degree to which the numbers in the budget table are reasonable and valid, as supported by the references that the student used. Quality of Analysis refers to the degree to which the budget narrative adequately communicates background information and rationale necessary to make sense of the budget table or spreadsheet. Thoroughness refers to the degree to which the items in the budget table or spreadsheet demonstrate a thorough comprehension of the income and expenses that one should anticipate, given the goals, history, and circumstances conveyed by the student in their budget narrative. Professional Communication assesses the degree to which the student provides the documents in a professional way—which includes appropriate grammar and punctuation in the narrative, adhering to the word count maximum, and providing a budget table that is visually coherent. Other Parameters of the Assignment Narrative Word Count The expected word count for the narrative is 1500 words maximum. As with other assignments, ordinarily, Dr. Greg will not actually count words as he performs the grading, so students should not feel burdened by that. This limitation is mainly to minimize the possibility that students put forth an excessive effort in comparison to what was intended in the design of the activity. While there is no minimum indicated, it obviously behooves students to adequately explain their work well. Budget Table Templates Dr. Greg will provide students with a budget table template that, at minimum, may be helpful to the task of generating a thorough list of income and expense line-items. Students alternatively may elect to use a template of their own design, but that contains essentially the same income and expense information as the template provided. References References should be provided as a bulleted listing that follows the same order as the line-items in the student’s budget table or spreadsheet. In other words, if the first major category listed is housing, and the first expense item listed under that category is rent, Dr. Greg should see the student’s reference information for rent as the first bulleted item on the reference listing. Circumstances that Ought to be Considered In generating the most basic personal information for this project, students essentially need to have a candid conversation with themselves about their life goals, what they expect their financial situation to be five years following graduation, and their anticipated day-to-day living conditions at that time. In that process, I would expect that these are the kinds of questions you might ask yourself, though some specific questions might vary from person to person… ? What will the household look like—besides yourself, will anyone else live with you? ? Given the location you’ve named above, and the job or educational circumstance you envision, what amount of gross income do you anticipate having? ? Will the household in which you live have additional income either as a consequence of another adult’s income or your own second job? ? How much in federal, state, and local taxes do you anticipate will be taken from your paycheck each month, and/or taxation you will experience via sales taxes? ? In what kind of housing will you live, and what features will be important to that choice? ? What will you use for transportation? ? Will you have to pay any credit bills, such as for student loans or credit cards? ? On what nondurable goods do you expect to spend money regularly? ? What can you anticipate your monthly food bill, groceries or eating-out, to look like? ? What durable goods will you have purchased, and how will you have obtained those (for instance, if one of those durable goods would be a washer and dryer, will you have purchased those new or used… outright or on credit)? ? What kinds of insurance will you need to secure, and how much of a drain will those be on your funds? ? To what degree will you be putting away any money in savings or investments? ? In all of these expenditures, how will they conform to your own values—for example, will you tend toward organic food, and will that cause your food budget to be larger than it otherwise? Will you tend toward name brand clothing in order to blend well in the job environment you expect to function within? Will you use public transportation a great deal? Submission Info and Deadline Each of the three documents (narrative, spreadsheet and references) should be submitted on the final regular day of class through the appropriate portals provided. Additional Assistance Dr. Greg will post a Q&A forum on Moodle that students may use in order to gain assistance on this project.