Reference no: EM133765102

Introduction: This assignment provides you with an opportunity to practice managing a zero-based budget. A zero-based budget means that saving and investment are specific items you designate as part of your budget, rather than hopingthat there is money left over at the end of each pay period to allocate toward these important financial goals. It is called a "zero-based budget" because you will be allocating every penny; what isn't allocated toward specific expenses, you will allocate to savings or investments. This means you should not have any income that hasn't been allocated to a specific spot in your budget; thus, $0 will be the remaining amount. This does not mean that you spend every penny, but rather that you are purposefully and mindfully allocating part of your monthly income toward financial goals.

Three Parts:There are three parts to this assignment: Budget Worksheet (Excel file), Documentation for Budgeted Items (Word file), and Dunaway Video Review (Word file).

General Instructions for Budget Worksheet: Open the accompanying Excel file to this assignment. The budget you fill out will reflect a hypothetical budget for yourfirst job aftercollege. You will create this based onthe annual salary you found in the OOH assignment.

The most important grading factor is to allocate all your income. You will do this by designating dollar amounts in the lavender cells within column D, based on your choices. This will occur when $0 appears in TOTAL ALLOCATED, cell C3 and ZERO BALANCE in cell C85.

Detailed Instructions for Budget Worksheet:

Step 1:Enter your gross annual income intocell B87.Leave the effective (average) tax rate at 20%. The Excel file will automatically calculate your Net Monthly Pay in cell B89.

Step 2: Plan to allocate theentire amount of your monthlyincome. Do so with purpose and intent to achieve financial goals. Enter your amounts into the appropriate lavender cells. As you enter amounts, you will notice that TOTAL ALLOCATED, cell C3, will decrease by the amount entered in columnD.

To achieve a zero-based budget, your TOTAL ALLOCATED, cell C3, should ultimately read "$0" or zero. This means that you are purposely planning where to place all of your net income-every cent! Zero-based budgeting helps you strategically assign every dollar coming into your household with the purpose of helping you make financial decisions that help you reach your goals and achieve financial security. This includes assigning a designated amount toward savings and a designated amount toward investments!

Important Considerations for Budget Worksheet: You don't need an entry for every category. For example, if you don't wear contacts, either enter 0 or leave blank cell D50 for contacts. You will be graded for reasonable entries. In other words, don't enter 100 in cell D14. You can't live anywhere for $100 per month. You must have an entry for every major category except Debts. In the Debt category, your entries for credit cards should be for unpaid balances. If you plan to purchase all your groceries and recreation with a credit card, DO NOT put numbers in the credit card cell then zeros for food and recreation.