This project aimed to simulate budget planning for a post-graduate student earning $55,000 in Nashville. Taxes reduced income by almost 30%, leaving less than $40,000 as disposable income. The need to save 20% of income further reduced funds available. Additional expenses like renters insurance and vehicle registration fees further cut into disposable income. This forced difficult choices around giving up desired purchases like vacations. Overall, the project highlighted how much of one's income can be taken by taxes and expenses, and the importance of realistic budget planning.

1. Analysis<br />This project asked us to simulate the budget-planning of a post-graduate student with a meager salary. I represent a person living in Nashville with moderate earnings of $55,000. <br />For many students, a salary of $55,000 may not be enough to live a comfortable life. Areas such as San Francisco or San Jose or New York have extremely high living costs. In Nashville, however, it is relatively easy to live with $55,000, since Nashville has lower housing prices, lower gas prices, and lower costs in general. <br />Through this project, I realized that planning a budget and allocating money efficiently really is a very difficult task. For one, taxes, whether it be federal income taxes or state income taxes or FICA, take away a huge sum of money. For a salary of $55,000, the taxes for a Tennessean sum up to about $15,000, an amount making up almost 30% of income. This is a huge cut in available disposable income for the individual.<br />Furthermore, the need to save money cuts down disposable income even further. Saving 20% of my adjusted income isn’t even close to my desired $10,000 annual savings. Finding a bank to put this money is also a rather difficult task. Not only do I have to consider the APY (annual percent yield), I must also take the bank’s financial stability into account. <br />Finally, I learned that there are a lot of extra costs to housing and transportation. I never knew there were renter’s insurance or vehicle registration fees. These additional expenses reduced my disposable income even further and I was forced to give up many desired things (vacations, books, cars, etc.) to ensure that I could live.<br />Overall, this project taught me to be a realistic life planner. The government and random expenses take away a huge amount of money. I learned to spend money wisely and I now have a better overview of the chaos that will accompany the beginning of independent life after college.<br />