WELCOME to your Budget!

First we need to get the form for your budget!  Click at the bottom where it says: Budget part 1 and download the word document.

Save it to your h: drive, NOT TO YOUR MY DOCUMENTS FOLDER!!!!!

Now we need a job for you, click HERE and find a job.  Look on the right hand side where it says: List of Average Job Salaries & Salary Comparisons by Career and select a field, then click the job in that field and record the Median annual Income for that job on your Budget sheet under: Gross pay.  Take some time with this step, selecting the right job is important!  You want a job that you love, but also one that pays the bills!

Of course we know that we have just recorded the gross income, and now we need to see how much we will actually take home (the net income).  To find it click HERE.  Set your pay frequency at; "Annual: 1 pay period per year" and set your wages equal to your gross pay from the first web site.  Then set: Withhold Federal and State Income Taxes? to: YES, Federal withholding status to: SINGLE and state to: New York. Leave Local blank, set State withholding status to: SINGLE, Number of allowances to: 0, dependants to: 1, and finally, set: Does your employer offer... to: NO.  Now click: Calculate taxes.

Now record the dollar amount in bold under the column: Pay Per Period on your budget sheet under: Net pay.

Now we know how much we make, lets look at the other side.

Although every person's budget is different, it helps to start with some general guidelines as to how much we can spend on a house, car, etc.  Begin by looking at the following ratios:

Housing: 30-35%

Car: 15-25%

Food/groceries: 10-15%

Savings: 10-20%

Spending money: 10-15% 

Everything else: 10-20%

Getting a general idea

Now let's see what these numbers look like.  First take your net pay and find the percentages (both high and low) of the items in blue above.  To do this, multiply your net pay by a decimal that is equal to the percent.  For example if you make $25,000 and you want 15% of that, multiply 25000x.15 for the total.

Record those numbers on your sheet.

If you got this far, part one is done!  REMEMBER to save your word document to your h: drive!