PERSONAL MONTHLY BUDGET STARTING POINT
Today you will build on the research you completed Monday. You are responsible for not only finding a college and major you are interested in, but finding your first job after college.
YOU MAY NOT FIND A JOB IN PHILADELPHIA OR THE REGIONAL AREA.
You must find an "ENTRY-LEVEL" job outside the Philadelphia Area (Philadelphia, Montgomery, Bucks, Delaware, and Chester, Camden, Burlington, and Gloucester Counties are off limits).
Use the College and Major you chose on Monday and go to the following website https://www.aftercollege.com/. Look on the right side of the opening page and you will see a box that says "Explore Curated Jobs". Select a College you are interested attending (SCHOOL). Enter a (MAJOR) you are likely to study. Set the (GRADUATION DATE) for MAY of 2018 and click SHOW ME THE JOBS.
If you chose professional training that did not require college, you must use Indeed.com, Monster.com, Careerbuilder, or other employment search sites to find your first job away from the Philadelphia area. You will have to search in a part of the country that interests you, and you still need to identify how you were trained to work in your chosen field. Ask me if you have any questions about this. If you joined the Military, ask me to help you identify a base to live near so you can complete the budget that way.
You may have to SIGN IN (Create A Free Account). Use your class GMAIL to sign up, and select a password you can remember.
Now you must choose a job that you are interested in. Once you find the job you must research where you will be working. Look up the company that is hiring for that position and where the office is. You will need to find an actual, accurate address to use. You must also copy the Job Title and Job Description for use later.
Tomorrow you will find out what your salary is based on your job location and title. This will be your Gross Pay before taxes and deductions, so you can spend that money on living expenses and anything else you need to buy to survive. We will discuss your purchases in more depth next week. For now, once you know what you are doing for a living and where you are working, you are now ready to find an apartment. You need to find a place to live near where you work, or someplace that will not cost a fortune to commute from. Everyone must live outside the Philadelphia Area.
YOU MAY NOT LIVE WITH FAMILY, but if you and someone from class have chosen the same place to work (same City or Area), you may share an apartment or living arrangement. This will help your overall budget. You must still keep separate budgets, but you can share the costs. YOU MUST HAVE YOUR OWN BEDROOM FOR PRIVACY. Depending on where you live, you will have to decide how much to spend on transportation for work. You may use any Real Estate or Apartment Finder websites to find places to live.
Once you have found all the information above and written it down on paper, please fill out and submit the following form completely (The more accurate and complete your answers are, the easier it will be to do additional tasks for your budget):
I was going to assign cities for you to find jobs in, but this is more realistic. If you take this project seriously, you will be surprised as what you will learn about how much things cost and how keeping an accurate budget will save you money, time, and aggravation. Previous students who complete this project correctly have enjoyed it and learned a lot about their future. I hope you have fun working on it too.
Good Luck!
- Mr. S