Education 1300 Learning framework Budget Analysis

Knowing how much money you have coming in and going out is key to financial success. In order to really show this, you will need to learn how to create a budget.

Use the expenses sheet and budget template at the bottom of this page to complete the assignment.

For this assignment, you will create a budget using your assigned example student. Each student will have a total of 2 incomes and 14 expenses. All of the income and expenses are either monthly or once per semester. Just think about it like real life. You wouldn’t buy books and supplies every month, but you would pay your rent every month. You wouldn’t receive a financial aid award every month, but you would receive a pay check from work.

In the Current Amount column of your Budget Template, you will need to show the total amount of funds your student has for income and the total amount of funds they used for expenses. You will also need to show what the remaining amount of funds are after the total expenses have been deducted from the total income. The scenarios are set up so that many of the expenses will exceed the income. It is part of your assignment to recognize those problems and offer solutions. Use the Proposed Change Amount column to make adjustments to balance your student’s budget. You must make at least 5 adjustments. You can make more than 5 adjustments if necessary. You must follow my rules for adjustments.

1. All proposed changes must be justified. This only needs to be a short sentence. You can give a longer explanation later when you write the reflection.
2. If you increase your student’s income by having them get a job, they can work no more than 20 hours per work earning no more than $10 per hour. Remember they are full time students as well.
3. Only personal expenses can be completely eliminated. Other categories can be reduced, but be realistic with your justification.
4. If you are not making a change, put the same amount your student started with in the change column and type no change in the justification column.
5. Even if your student has extra money to begin with, you still have to make at least 5 changes. Consider if they are using financial aid responsibly. Did they take out a student loan that they don’t really need? How can they spend or save their extra money responsibly?