Gas Money Gas isn t free. In fact, it s one of the largest expenses many people have each month.

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1 Gas Money Gas isn t free. In fact, it s one of the largest expenses many people have each month. For the sake of this project, let s say that you drive an average of 300 miles each week (300 x 4 = 1200 per month) in your vehicle. Use your car s gas mileage to see how many gallons of gas you will use each month. gallons = ( 1200 mpg ) The average cost of a gallon of gas is close to $3.30 these days. Multiply the number of gallons of gasoline you use each month by the cost of a gallon of gas to find out how much you will pay for gas each month and record the answer in your information packet.

2 Car Insurance It is illegal to drive a car without car insurance. It s also dangerous to you and the people around you to drive without car insurance. Different vehicles have different car insurance rates because some vehicles are built safer than others. Below are the monthly insurance costs for different types of vehicles Car: $115 Truck: $130 SUV: $115 Van: $100 Record your monthly auto insurance costs in your information packet.

3 Car Loan You re going to need a set of wheels to get you from point A to point B now that you have a job. Unfortunately you don t have enough money to purchase the car all at once. Luckily, you ve been approved for a car loan at a 5% interest rate. What does this mean? Someone is going to give you enough money to purchase the car you want, but you will have to pay them back for the entire amount plus 5% of the amount you borrowed. They will give you five years (60 months) to pay them back. Use this formula to find your monthly car payment and record it in your information packet. monthly payment = cost of vehicle

4 Apartment Living Advantages: You don t have to be locked into a 30 year loan and someone else fixes everything for you. Disadvantages: You don t own your home and you have to share walls with strange people you don t know. You also have to pay a deposit on your first month in the apartment. Most people that live in apartments also pay renters insurance that covers your personal belongings and will give you money to replace them in case they are stolen or damaged while you live in your apartment. Monthly Renters Insurance: $15

5 House Living Advantages: You own your castle (so to speak) and you get more room for less money per month. Disadvantages: You owe someone (usually a bank) money on your house for many years and you are in charge of everything in case something breaks. You also have to pay property taxes too. Monthly House Insurance and Taxes: $300

6 Mortgage Time A mortgage is money that is given to you by a bank to purchase a home. Banks will loan people money so that they can purchase houses without having to save up all of the money necessary to purchase a house on their own. Like a car loan, mortgages have insurance rates that allow the banks to make money. They give you the money to buy a house and you pay them back over the course of many years plus a percentage of how much you borrowed. This is how banks make money. Use the following formula to find your monthly mortgage payment with a 5% interest rate: Monthly Payment = House Cost Round to the nearest cent and record your payment in your information packet.

7 How to calculate your taxes Dollars paid in taxes each year: This is how much money the government receives from your salary each year. To find this amount, turn the tax percent into a decimal and multiply it by your salary. Gross Monthly Income: This is how much money you are paid each month before taxes. To find this, divide your salary by 12. Net Monthly Income: This is how much money you make after taxes are taken out of your monthly salary. To find this, use the following formula. yearly salary taxes paid each year 12 Your Net Monthly Income is how much money you actually get to spend each month.

8 Roommates You may have 1 roommate that you live with. Expenses you may split with your roommate Housing costs, TV service, Internet service. Expenses you may not split with your roommate Everything else.

9 Visual 30 points of your grade on this project come from a visual that you use to describe your budget and what you spent money on. You will earn 20 points for including all of the information from your packet. You will earn 10 points for creativity. This is very open-ended and I m not looking for anything other than the information from your packet and your creativity. If both of those are there, you will do well on the visual.