This document outlines a personal finance workshop that teaches participants how to create and manage a budget. It discusses the importance of setting financial goals and tracking income and expenses, categorizing fixed and variable costs, and understanding take-home pay after taxes. Participants engage in activities like recording their own spending, analyzing sample budgets, and creating a budget to meet hypothetical financial goals based on a case study income scenario. The goal is for participants to learn budgeting strategies to help achieve their own savings objectives.
2. Would you like to purchase a laptop or a car?
Do you plan to pay for a college education?
Do you want to earn a certain amount of money by a particular age?
How to achieve financial goals?
Share strategies with others!
3. It is a plan for spending and saving
It helps us reach financial goals
An important part of creating an accurate budget is tracking exactly how much
money comes in and goes out each month
CASH FLOW = concept of money coming in (income and earnings) and money
going out (expenses and spending)
4. STUDENT ACITVITY: Record on a piece of paper what you have spent money on
over the last two days:
Have you bought any food, clothing or electronics?
Have you gone to the movies with a friend or bought any groceries or food?
fixed expenses = they are the same each month, such as a rent, phone or car
payment
variable expenses = they change in price and frequency each month, like food or
gas
STUDENT ACITVITY: label your purchases as fixed or variable expenses
5. If you want to buy a home, will your mortgage be a fixed or variable expense?
If you want to take a vacation to Europe, will that be a fixed or variable expense?
Have you earned any money this month (e.g., birthday cash, paycheck or
allowance)?
How do you keep track of what you make and what you spend?
6. This is the total amount of money you earn before taxes.
State and social security taxes are all deducted from your gross income (self-
employed individuals also pay a self-employment tax).
Once taxes are deducted from your gross pay, you are left with what is called net
pay.
This is the actual money you take home and the number you start with when
building a budget.
7. Work in groups of 4-5
You need to study three different budgets showing fixed and variable expenses.
Your challenge will be to decide which budget is the most effective in meeting the
budgeter’s individual goals.
What adjustments could be made to meet the goal sooner?
Share your answers!
8. Work on your own on creating your own budget
CASE:You just accepted your first job and you’ll be earning a gross income of
$30,000/year.You live on your own and are responsible for all expenses, including
rent, car, insurance,cell phone, utilities, entertainment, food, savings and
miscellaneous expenses.You have to pay 25% of your gross income in taxes.
1. CalculateYour Take Home Pay
2. Categorize Expenses
9. Think back to the goals you defined in the beginning of class.
Write on shared Padlet wall about how you will use budgeting to achieve these
objectives.
How much will you need to save?
What fixed and variable expenses can you adjust in order to meet your goals
sooner?
AFTER THEWORKSHOP:Try recording everything you purchase over a month.
Can you identify any patterns (e.g. eating out every Friday?, goding to the movies
each week?)