COST OF LIVING EXERCISE
Budgeting
Job or Career?
Ask yourself
questions.






Have you thought about where you want to be 5
or 10 years from now?
What kind of lifestyle do you want?
Where do you want to work? Small office?
International corporation?
Where do you want to live? Big city, small town
or rural area?
Do you want to travel?
You will make one choice that will determine all
of these things for you – your job.
Job or Career?
What is the
difference
between a job
and a career?


A job is one place of employment and
can be found anywhere.
A career is a chosen occupation that
typically requires advanced education.
Job or Career
What is the
difference
between a job
and a career?




What are some examples of jobs?
Careers?
Are there differences in the amount of
education?
Do you have to go to college to have a
career?
Is there a difference in salary?
Job or Career?
Examples




Which of these is a job and which is the
beginning of a career?
You graduate from high school and begin to
work full-time at a fast-food restaurant.
You go to college and discover you love business
and graduate with a degree in accounting.
You begin working at a medium-sized
accounting firm and study for the CPA exam.
Cost of Living/Budgeting Exercise
Cost of living/budgeting
Let’s talk
about money.



You now know the difference between a
job and a career.
Which one do you think is likely to pay
more?
Why do you think this is important?
Cost of living/budgeting
Let’s pretend.

For an example, let’s pretend you have
graduated high school and went to
work full-time in a fast food restaurant.
You want to live on your own. Let’s
figure out if you make enough money.
Cost of living/budgeting
How much do
you need?




What is the minimum wage?
 $7.25/hour
How many hours is full-time?
 40 hours per week
Multiply $7.25 by 40 hours per week to see
what you would earn in one week from the fastfood job.
 $290.00/week
Now multiply that amount by four weeks in the
month.
 $1,160.00/monthly
Cost of living/budgeting
How much do
you need?


Not bad, but do you get to keep all
that money?
Taxes have to be paid on our earnings.
We will be generous today and only
take out $100 for taxes. How much
does that leave?


$1060.00.00/monthly
Now that you have made your money,
let’s figure out how to spend it.
Cost of living/budgeting
Expenses

Where will you need to spend your
money every month?
Place to live
 Car
 Gasoline
 Electricity
 Food
 Telephone
 Insurance
 Clothes
 Entertainment

Cost of living/budgeting
Housing


What kind of home will you live in?
Apartment, a regular house or a
mansion?
Let’s look at homes first.
Cost of living/budgeting
Houses

How much do you think a three
bedroom home in a safe neighborhood
costs per month?
The average cost for a three-bedroom
home in Texas is $1,250/month.
Do you make enough?

Cost of living/budgeting
Apartments

How much is the rent for an average
two-bedroom apartment in a big city
like Dallas?
You can easily pay $800-$1000 per
month.
Do you make enough?

Cost of living/budgeting
Car

What type of car would you like to
drive?
Cost of living/budgeting
How much is
left?




You don’t have much left over from your
fast-food salary, do you?
We haven’t even begun to talk about
electricity, telephone, insurance, clothes,
much less your entertainment expenses.
It is expensive to live on your own, isn’t
it?
It is hard to buy everything you want
when you’re working on minimum wage.
Cost of living/budgeting
College


Going to college will give you a chance
at a career that will provide you with a
good salary and security.
A possible career option is accounting.
A career in accounting offers you things
a job cannot give you – like a good
salary, opportunities for advancement,
respect, and the ability to make a
difference in your community.