BUDGETING PROJECT
It’s time to invent a person whose financial future you will plan and explain, whose personal budget you will build, and whose life ought to have a positive trajectory.
Requirements etc:
❖ Your person should be between 18-25 years old and live in the United States.
❖ When you choose where your person lives, you’re setting up the first part of your research. You’ll need to know about population, demographics, median income, income needed to live comfortably, transportation systems, availability of healthy food, and potential for employment.
❖ You will need to provide them with a backstory - education, family of origin, gender, relationship status, and so on.
❖ Your person cannot be a professional athlete. Coach or trainer, sure.
❖ Don’t be boring - invent someone who needs to think about financial issues. No Jeff Bezos/Elon Musk types.
❖ You can’t include bailouts from parents or grandparents
❖ Your person needs to eat, pay for housing, utilities, clothing, transportation, health insurance, monthly payments on student loans, and so on.
❖ Potential income sources like donating plasma have to abide by rules (on Red Cross website for plasma, for example)
❖ Your person cannot rely on theft or illegal activities for support
Resources
❖ There are lots of reputable sources with information about choosing a bank, optimizing credit, and so on. Please keep track of the sources you use for your “works cited” page.
❖ Please feel free to ask the librarians for help - they’re aware of your project and have created a Resource Guide for this assignment.
Deliverables
❖ Inventing your person and their backstory is only part 1 of this assignment. Write up due at the beginning of class meeting 3 this week and be prepared to share your person with the class.
❖ Budget: spreadsheet is due in the 2nd class meeting next week.
❖ Deeper dive into credit cards and student loans.
❖ Make a display for the Math Expo (complete by first class meeting for the week of May 10th)
❖ Present your project to the class
❖ Attend the Math Expo
This resource guide was created by Laura Pearle.