Project+3-Budgeting+for+Success

Project 3 - Budgeting for Success

The goal of this project is to develop a budget for your first year after graduating college. In a previous project you researched a career field that you wish to enter. You will use that chosen field as a launching pad for this project. You will begin by researching starting salaries for graduates in your chosen field. You will then research the cost of living for the city in which you intend to live (includes housing, utilities, food, fuel, etc). You will also need to research income tax rates on your salary, estimated student loan payments, insurance (home, auto, and life), and account for miscellaneous expendtures based on your location (ex. you'll need to purchase a set of snow tires if you live in Colorado). Once you have completed your research you will develop a monthly budget based on your research and estimates. The budget must be developed in Excel and include a minimum of 12 categories. The Excel spreadsheet must be formatted with headers, appropriate shading, fonts, and formulas. The top heading of the spreadsheet must contain your name, chosen career field, and beginning annual salary. Sheet 2 in your Excel workbook must contain Works Cited information. All the websites you obtain information from must be listed and you need to state what information you received from that website (ex. salary information: HERE and/or [|HERE]).

You will receive daily participation grades for completing research, staying on task, etc. You will receive a final project grade for this assignment and the final project grade will also count as your final exam grade for the semester.

Projects will be graded utilizing the rubric below:


 * **CATEGORY** || **20** || **15** || **10** || **5 or less** ||
 * **Content** || Covers topic in-depth with details and examples. Subject knowledge is excellent. || Includes essential knowledge about the topic. Subject knowledge appears to be good. || Includes essential information about the topic but there are 1-2 factual errors. || Content is minimal or there are several factual errors. ||
 * **Works Cited** || Includes 12 or more properly documented websites from which the student obtained project research. || Includes at least 10 properly documented websites from which the student obtained project research. || Includes 5-9 properly documented websites from which the student obtained project research. || Includes less than 5 properly documented websites from which the student obtained project research. ||
 * **Requirements** || All requirements are met and exceeded. || All requirements are met. || One requirement was not completely met. || More than one requirement was not completely met. ||
 * **Organization** || Content is well organized using headings or bulleted lists to group related material. || Uses headings or bulleted lists to organize, but the overall organization of topics appears flawed. || Content is logically organized for the most part. || There was no clear or logical organizational structure, just lots of facts. ||
 * **Originality** || <span style="font-family: Arial,Arial;">Product shows a large amount of original thought. Ideas are creative and inventive. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Arial;">Product shows some original thought. Work shows new ideas and insights. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Arial;">Uses other people's ideas (giving them credit), but there is little evidence of original thinking. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Arial;">Uses other people's ideas, but does not give them credit. ||